Rise of the Fallen
by Esterni
Summary: What if the change in behaviour of Anakin Skywalker shortly after Mace Windu's death wasn't coming from him accepting the dark side, but from him not being able to control his own actions anymore? And what if, sixteen years later, he receives a chance to regain this control? With his past tainted with darkness, what will he do with his newfound freedom? (Grey!Anakin)
1. Chapter 1

**Darth Vader**

The day that would mark the beginning of his end started out boring enough. Darth Vader was walking down one of the long corridors leading through the senate on Coruscant, feeling angry and incredibly bored. Those doddery fools with their endless monologues over politics! If the emperor wouldn't have forbidden it he would have killed them all long ago. But instead he was stuck having to listen to those fools trying to decide things they ultimately had no power over anyway.

He was just glad for it to be over and paid little mind to what was going on around him except for watching out for possible threats. The sound of his mechanical breathing was the only audible thing around, for everyone else nearing him had fallen into silence.

So it wasn't very surprising that Bail Organa did the same as he walked towards the Sith Lord just then. Accompanying him was his usual guard and a girl, around sixteen. His daughter, if Vader remembered correctly from the files he had studied before. Studied, for he knew that there was something going on with this man, although he didn't yet know what. But he would discover it.

Immersed in his thoughts about the man he gave a closer look to the girl, wondering if she was already with him in this and if it might be easier to track her movements than his, when all of a sudden his whole mind went black.

A second later he was back, but it was as if he was sitting in the back seat. He saw how his body stopped walking just as the Organas passed him, turning around, staring at the girl. A thought was basically screaming in his head, one not coming from him.

 _'Padmé?!'_

Vader was rather surprised to even hear anything from that part again. He thought he had conquered that years ago.

 _'This is not Padmé you imbecile. She's dead and you killed her,'_ he mentally snapped as such and the other presence flinched back as if stung.

A reaction he used to regain control over his body as his hatred over not being in control grew and his malicious joy over the other one's misery did the rest.

Suffice to say that he was quickly back in control, destroying an ugly statue of some senator standing close to him in the process as his anger lashed out.

Whoever hadn't already fled as he had suddenly stopped walking to turn around was doing so now, hurriedly finding excuses to turn around and leave the scene as quickly as possible.

Vader didn't care though, he was much more concerned with what had just transpired. So the little midget still had some fighting spirit left? Or had this just been the last gasp of what by now must be nothing more than an empty shell? He would have to watch out better again.

This would not repeat itself, of that he was sure.

xxx

 **Anakin Skywalker**

Anakin's thoughts were racing, he was thinking more than he had been in years. And all of it was connected to this girl he had seen. Of course, it wasn't Padmé, it couldn't be her. Vader was right, he had killed her... in a way.

Vader... Even thinking the name brought forth a hatred stronger than anything else he felt these days. Everything had started when Palpatine had used Anakin's despair and overall _weakness_ to implant this horrible being into him.

Vader, the spirit of a former Sith lord who had been allowed control over Anakin's body in exchange of his service to the emperor. All it had taken was a moment of despair, a moment of regret and overwhelming _feelings_.

When Anakin had decided to save Palpatine from Mace Windu, basically killing the Jedi Master with his actions this had been his point of despair. In fact, he was still not completely over the fact that he had been responsible for the death of the man. But it had just been the beginning, for once Vader had taken control over his body he had done even more gruesome things, knowing it would torment Anakin, having to watch how he was committing so many atrocities...

In fact, Vader had already managed to drive Anakin into insanity once, and only time and the fact that the ghost loved listening to his angry and desperate screams had made him slowly come back to his senses. It was the knowledge that he was unable to stop it that had driven him to catatonia, stopping to care about anything anymore... Padmé was dead anyway after all.

But now he had been actually able to overpower the spirit, if only for a second. All because he had seen a girl that looked similar to the Padmé he remembered. So somehow at least part of his will to live had reignited.

He wanted to know who that girl was. He wanted to make sure she wasn't connected to Padmé. Or maybe that she was? He didn't know, but he definitely knew he needed to regain control of his body for doing any of that. And once he had it, there were still two other things he could do to make the galaxy a better place:

Killing Palpatine and Vader.

And if that meant he had to kill himself for it, he didn't think he would have a big problem with that.

But for now the spirit was growing weary again... Anakin could shield his thoughts from Vader, but it would need time until he would be able to overpower the other being again... But he _had_ time. If living like that had taught him anything it was patience. For once he would use it to think of a few plans before running into the situation headfirst.

That would probably happen afterwards anyway...

* * *

 _I know this is rather short, but the chapters will get longer as the story proceeds, this is more some sort of prologue._

 _I hope you liked it anyway and I will try my best to update frequently. :)_

 _(Also, just for your information: I tried to gather as much information as possible about the various things I'm using in this story, from the movies as well as Wookiepedia and some of the books, but I'm not an expert, so if you find any mistakes please let me know. Same goes for my language use. English isn't my first language and I sadly don't have a Beta reader, so if there are any grave errors just tell me so that I can fix them. Thanks in advance!)_


	2. Chapter 2

**Darth Vader**

After that one time where Anakin had managed to regain control for a moment Darth Vader indeed grew a lot more suspicious again. But the boy hadn't tried anything else. In fact, he had quickly returned to his catatonic self after Vader had taunted him a few more times with the fact that Padmé was dead and if he kept acting up the girl would be soon too. Who could do anything against one of those famous outbursts of anger Vader was known for after all? A pity if it would hit the one girl looking like Padmé Amidala.

After that Anakin had retreated far back into his own mind again, barely noticeable, the way Vader preferred it. For while taunting the boy, making him rage and snap at him like a kicked dog, had been a lot of fun at first it had slowly grown boring, especially once Anakin had stopped responding as heatedly and grown more quiet. But well, it _had_ been more than fifteen years by now after all.

By now Vader was mostly busy with his life as it was, for the emperor was keeping him on a tight leash and the body he was occupying had been horribly malformed. Badly crafted prostheses and constant pain were keeping him angry and weak, which was so different from what this body had once been that it was more than infuriating. He was already working on a plan to kill his master though, even though the contract he was under was very strict and finding loopholes wasn't exactly easy.

xxx

Which was why he was rather glad for what people thought of as his meditation. Entering his meditation chamber he could let go of the control over his body for a moment, leaving the boy alone with it and the pain, closing his mind off completely for a while, immersing himself in the dark side of the Force... And the boy couldn't escape as the only way to open up the hermetically sealed room was a password only Vader himself knew, guarded strongly to never shine through to the boy, so those were the only moments when he could relax and actually take his time to plot against the emperor in peace.

Which was what he was doing one day about half a year after Anakin's last protest, thinking about a better way to keep his master's spies out of his plans besides constantly killing them off in his usual hateful lash outs, knowing that Anakin wouldn't even bother to take control over the body anymore for it was completely impossible to escape.

He took his time for his thoughts - enjoying the pain-free hours filled with nothing more but the darkness he had long grown to love in a way an assassin loved his favourite weapon - before finally returning, knowing that it was time to make an appearance again to stop people from growing suspicious.

As such he returned to the body, ignoring the flash of pain he began to feel as his anger about it was fuelling the Force that subdued it at least a little, before finally opening up his meditation chamber again.

Which was when it happened.

Just as the meditation chamber opened he felt a huge amount of energy rushing through him, overpowering him even though he had just been connected to the Force. But it had also weakened his connection to the body a little it seemed, for all his strength in that moment didn't hold up against the onslaught.

And as such, a moment later he found himself on the backseat of the body once again, feeling a wave of hatred, but also triumph pass over him.

 _'Take that, you bastard!'_ Anakin's voice echoed in his mind, the sent thought obvious in it's meaning. That little twerp was boasting!

 _'You will regret this try,'_ Vader answered as such, lacing his words with dark promises. _'I will kill everything that is left in your meagre little heart. Everything that you didn't already kill yourself, that is!'_

But this time the desired effect of making the boy squirm failed to happen.

 _'You can't threaten me with anything I haven't already told myself,'_ Anakin answered, his hatred sounding far stronger than the last time they had talked.

 _'What do you want to do, the dark side is far too strong in you, nobody will want you!'_ Vader scoffed, but again, Anakin failed to react in a good way.

 _'Oh, I know that. But I'm not stupid, I won't tell you anything more. This is_ my _body and I will_ not _let you defile it any longer!'_

Before Vader could react to that, Anakin added a last, hate-filled _'Good riddance!'_ before closing off his connection to Vader completely, making the spirit exist in darkness, for all of the bodies' senses where closed off. Of course, while normally liking to make the boy suffer through anything he experienced Vader had used this technique a few times himself, mostly when talking to the emperor as this wasn't anything the boy was supposed to know, but to have it used against him right now was making him beyond angry.

And still, even as he cried out in fury he knew, as long as Anakin's hatred was that strong the sound wouldn't carry on to him... But the hatred would subside and the shields would weaken, which was when he would return and make sure the boy would _never_ be able to overthrow him again. _Ever_.

xxx

 **Anakin Skywalker**

After the initial elation Anakin had felt since regaining control over his body he had quickly begun to start working on his plans. He had secretly ordered a variety of materials for improving his suit from different sources that should not be able to make the connection back to him, and was now working on stage two of his plans: Getting rid of the everlasting pain that accompanied every breath he took. He knew that his face and lungs were almost completely burned since that fateful day on Mustafar, but he also knew that medicine had progressed since then. Vader just hadn't been allowed by Palpatine to heal himself and as such all doctors on this ship were Palpatine's minions.

But Anakin intended on changing that now. He had already hacked into the list of replacement doctors the emperor had provided, replacing the files with doctors he had checked out before. He didn't know if this plan would work out, but at least he'd know then that the doctors wouldn't be lackeys of his enemy.

For now, Anakin was sitting in his room on Vader's Star Destroyer where he had built the equipment to cause an error in his life support system that sent a message to all the doctors on the ship.

It didn't need long for them to come hurried through the door.

"Lord Vader, are you alright? The alarm of your life support unit went off!" the first doctor said, sounding alarmed but also a little confused for Anakin was only standing there, showing none of the signs of obvious discomfort Vader normally displayed when this alarm sounded.

Anakin kept quiet, staring at the doctor that grew steadily more insecure as he closed in on him, obviously wanting to check the system if something was malfunctioning. Thankfully the other doctors finally arrived then, faking their worries. It sickened him, knowing that they all did nothing to make him feel better, only being there to make sure he wouldn't die, just staying in pain. As such, with one big outburst of the Force, they were all thrown back, hitting the walls around them with thickening crunches before dropping to the ground, unmoving.

"Bastards," Anakin hissed, before checking if any of them had survived. But his outburst had been effective, shredding half of the room too, and nobody would suspect anything as Darth Vader was known for his violent outbursts anyway. Especially after his systems malfunctioned, for Vader hated this suit as much as Anakin did.

As he calmly left his room a squad of soldiers walked towards him, a high-ranking officer in the lead.

"Lord Vader, we heard a loud noise from your quarter," he stated after a brief salute, making Anakin turn his head to look at him. The man didn't wince, that was at least something.

"Clean up the mess," he just said, hoping to sound like Vader would, before passing the soldiers, leaving them to deal with the rest. It was their job after all and he didn't want to be near people if possible. Having to act like Vader made him sick, and knowing that part of him was acting like the Sith even without trying was even worse, but at the moment he couldn't change it. If anyone got suspicious he was dead and that wasn't an option. For now.

* * *

 _Still a bit on the short side, the next chapter will be about twice as long though.  
_

 _Also: A big thank you to everyone who reviewed! I am very glad that you seem to like the basic idea as of now and I hope I won't disappoint you later on! :)_

 _And something more or less unrelated I was wondering about but forgot to ask before:_  
 _While I don't think there will be more than light swearing in this story there will probably be several more or less severe mental breakdowns for Anakin later on (the time with Vader in control has to leave marks) so I am a little insecure about the rating... Is T enough when describing mental distress or would I have to updade it once I reach those scenes? (Of course, fighting would also happen sooner or later, but I think that shouldn't be worse than T for I don't like gore, physical torture or anything like that)_


	3. Chapter 3

**Aeron Novar**

Aeron Novar was rather surprised at what turn his life had taken recently. He had been nothing more than a doctor on a medical frigate, a surgeon working for the Empire, travelling through the galaxy to help injured soldiers in need. It was pretty surprising to see how much problems the Empire had with rebellions on smaller planets, but Aeron didn't care all too much about the whys, he only wanted to heal people, everything else was secondary.

Which was the reason why he was more than confused when one day his superior told him that he would be relocated, for while he knew his actions at times could be called questionable he did have a certain reputation for being a good doctor, saving more lives through his unusual doings then losing them. And still, for whatever reason a higher power seemed to hate him, as he was relocated to Darth Vader's Star Destroyer, the _Exactor_. The one place in the galaxy where he could basically do nothing more than watch the health of an aggressive guy in a suit. Great.

So now he was stuck with four other doctors on this Star Destroyer where he was deadly bored, with nothing interesting to keep him occupied, as even injuries of other crew members happened rarely. After all, if Vader got angry it was normally a more permanent thing than injury that befell his unlucky victims.

And just this was the reason why about two weeks after getting transferred to the _Exactor_ he was now on his way to said man to ask him if he could get transferred back. He had already tried more times than he could count with his direct superior but the man had declined his request every time until telling him to take it up with Vader if he wanted to get out so desperately.

Well, that was what he was about to do now. He didn't care that the man was so feared, he hadn't even seen him in person as of now and even then, he wasn't scared. He didn't care about dying, his only goal was to help people as long as he lived. Something he couldn't do while trapped on a bloody Star Destroyer!

xxx

The way to Vader's private quarters was quiet. No wonder, one probably had to be crazy to come here voluntarily Aeron thought wryly. Oh well, he'd never been the most stable person around.

Once he had arrived in front of the chambers he hesitated for a moment, wondering how exactly he should phrase his request, when a sound behind him made him jump.

"What are you doing here?" a deep, metallic voice asked just as the doctor whirled around.

"Uh, actually I was here to see you," Aeron answered after a moment, taking the lack of obvious anger in the other man's voice as a good sign.

Vader was quiet for a second, with only his breathing being easily audible - which made Aeron wonder how he hadn't heard the other before. He must have been more distracted than he had thought.

"Let us go inside," Vader finally said, walking past the doctor to the security panel of his door, opening it with a near-silent noise. "After you."

Aeron entered the room that was barely furnished - the most prominent thing being a black desk in the middle of the room and a few terminals at the side - wondering if it would be the last room he would ever see, before turning around, waiting as Vader entered himself, closing the door behind him.

Areon followed the other man with his eyes as he walked to his desk while continued to talk, stopping only when standing behind it, as if wanting to keep a more obvious distance between them.

"So, what did you want from me?"

"I wanted to ask you if you could transfer me to another ship. A medical frigate if possible," Aeron said after a moment of thought. It was probably best to be as direct as possible without being impolite, for Vader did seem to be a no-nonsense guy. So why bother with the meaningless things people wanted to hear normally to make the conversation seem more lively?

His request seemed to surprise Vader though, for he was quiet for another moment. Or maybe he was plotting the quickest way to kill him, there was no way to tell with that mask.

"Why?" he asked finally, making Aeron shrug.

"I'm a doctor and I prefer being somewhere I am needed. People I can heal, you know? I understand why doctors are important around here, but I do not think I'm the right one for this job. There are four better candidates around."

"You are brave to be coming directly to me with that," Vader answered after a moment, but he didn't sound angry. Pretty weird for a guy who got basically _defined_ by his anger, but whatever. Aeron certainly didn't mind not being choked to death.

"I tried my superior, he didn't seem to have the right mindset though, so I thought I might just try my luck with you."

Maybe it was a little too bold to be that honest, but in the end, Aeron wasn't the kind of man to think of endless webs of lies to get to the point. He preferred dying an honest man than living a lie.

"This is... interesting. I will consider your request," Vader just said, making the doctor blink in surprise for a moment - he wasn't sure if he had expected Vader to give in that easily. "But..." Aha, there was the catch now! "...I want you to check these files out first."

From a drawer of his desk Vader produced something that looked disturbingly like a clinical record.

"I want to hear an honest assessment of this patient. What would you do with him?" he asked, shoving it towards Aeron, who blinked a few times in surprise before picking it up. What kind of task was this? A test?

But all thoughts about what this might be about left his head once he started reading the file. Sure, all kinds of things that could identify the patient were blackened, but he could still see how it was a male and... damn it, the list of injuries and problems of that guy seemed endless!

The more he read the worse it seemed to get. No limbs, severe burns because of exposure to a lot of heat, presumably on a planet with a lot of lava and toxic smoke, even eyes and ears didn't work properly anymore...

He barely noticed how he had began to hold his breath as he studied the file until he sighed deeply once he was through with it.

"Honestly? I think I'd kill him. Give the poor guy a mercy killing, nobody should live with that sort of pain."

"Killing is not an option," Vader said tightly, making Aeron frown a little, but nod. Maybe the man knew that person? Damn it... He thought a moment longer.

"Alright... What kind of pain relievers does he get then?" If the guy lived halfway pain free he must have constant hallucinations...

"None," Vader replied though, making Aeron gape at him.

" _What_? How does he even survive?!" All of this pain could drive anyone crazy!

"That is none of your concern. I just want to know if it can be treated."

Well, it was true that it was no business of his, but damn it, what kind of quack was treating the poor guy?! Still, healing those injuries sounded like quite some challenge...

"That would depend. How old are the injuries?" The file listed them all, but the dates were blackened too, so it was hard to estimate what could still be done.

"Old. More than fifteen years."

Aeron's eyes widened again.

"Fifteen years?! I'm surprised the guy survived that long..." He could see that there had been things done for him too, but... honestly, prostheses? It looked as if they hadn't even _tried_ to heal the injuries and just put prostheses everywhere! The guy even had some in his ears! And all of that without any kind of pain relievers... The man _must_ have gone crazy...

"Well, he did. So...?" Vader pulled him out of his thoughts, making him focus again.

"Right, sorry. I'd say... the lungs and eyes might be able to get healed over time... Bacta immersion might do the trick, although I'm not sure how long it would take, given the severity of the injury and the long time span between now and when it happened. Quicker if you have some good quality Bacta. I can't do anything about the limbs of course, though even my limited knowledge about technology tells me that those models are long outdated, I would suggest more modern ones, as long as the funds are there and not drained completely for getting the best Bacta possible." He thought a moment longer, frowning a little in concentration. "The ears are a lost cause I fear, too much has been damaged and the implants would interfere with with the healing. But taking them out could make it even worse, so I'd stay with the prosthesis there. Same with most replaced bones. Although I'd like to talk to the doctor who worked on those before, that was a total dunce. Some of those injuries could have been treated much better, even with low funds. Although actually, with low funds killing the poor guy still sounds like the better option to me... All those injuries must hurt like hell."

"It was a medical droid," Vader said after another moment of silence in which he seemingly just worked through what had been said. "And the funds _should_ have been high enough. Though they were probably capped by another influence."

Man, this guy had some serious hatred stored inside of him against whoever had capped the money for that healing process it seemed. No wonder, with that little actual healing done, while the subject would have survived it might have had the need for some sort of full-body suit to keep it alive all the... time...

Which was when it finally dawned on him.

"That's your record, isn't it?" he said before he could stop himself as everything fell into place. The suit, the mechanical voice, the breathing that sounded so even it must have been controlled by a machine...

Vader seemed to hesitate for a moment, but nodded finally.

Aeron whistled quietly.

"Respect. I don't think I want to know how this happened, but you survived it remarkably well given the circumstances I'd say."

"Whatever," Vader just answered, obviously not wanting to hear any praise for this, even though Aeron did think this was quite a feat without going crazy. Though it _did_ explain some of the anger issues the man had. It surely wasn't easy to live in constant pain... "The question is, can you heal it?"

"Me?" Aeron asked in surprise. Sure, he was known for his rather strange tactics at times and for taking a lot of risks other doctors didn't, but this... "There are other doctors on this ship, right? What about them?"

"I tried to ask them. They cower in fear just when they are alone with me in a room. This is useless," Vader said snidely. "You were the first to even give me an honest assessment about what could be done and what's a lost cause."

That didn't even surprise Aeron much. Most other doctor's were spineless bastards, he knew it best, he had worked with a lot of them. Still, the idea to just go back to the medical frigate was so tempting...

 _'You can't leave the guy to suffer like that... Who knows when he'll find another doctor willing to work with_ Darth Vader _of all people?'_ a small voice in his mind chided. Damn it, stupid conscience... But of course, he knew that he couldn't just leave, not after having read that clinical report. The man _did_ need his help and while he wasn't exactly a fan of Vader's doings he also couldn't leave a patient like that. Also, this kind of was why he had been sent to this ship, right? To make sure Vader was alright... And if his colleagues thought he was fine the way he was his pride as a doctor was the first thing telling him to go against that. He'd show them all.

"Alright," he finally said. "I'll do it. Where do you want to start?"

xxx

 **Anakin Skywalker**

The following weeks were filled with preparations and plotting. As the doctors on the _Exactor_ all got a huge sum of money for their 'research' - which normally meant that Palpatine simply bribed them to do what he wanted - it wasn't overly difficult for Novar to get the highest quality of Bacta there was, but the question of how they would start the healing process was rather hotly debated. Novar wanted to do a complete immersion into Bacta, only watching out that certain parts like Anakin's ears and spine did not connect to the healing liquid, but Anakin didn't trust the doctor enough for that as that would mean leaving himself almost completely defenceless. But his idea of doing things one after another and separated into multiple steps had the disadvantage of needing a lot more time and the risk of complications or discovery was a lot higher.

It had already been risky to even tell the doctor as much as he had, but at the same time the doctor couldn't heal properly without the information, so there hadn't really been another way. And he could have easily wiped his memories of this conversation, similarly as to how he had done with the three other doctors he had previously tried to convince to help.

However, for the time being the doctor proved to be surprisingly enjoyable company and a welcome change to always having to pretend to be a heartless bastard. For while it might not have been his best idea to not exactly behave very Vader-like when first talking to Novar it proved to be rather nice now, as it meant he could be more like himself around at least one person. As the man hadn't even known him before he probably wouldn't find it that strange in the end anyway, so... it should work out.

Just then a soft beeping noise signalled someone standing outside of his quarter's doors, wanting to come in. At first Anakin thought it would be Novar, for it was already past the time they had agreed to meet the last time - they tried to keep it as randomly as possible to avoid suspicions - but instead once he reached the small panel next to the door it showed someone else. One of his - or, well, Vader's - spies.

He opened the door to look at the man, who straightened the second he saw him.

"Lord Vader," he greeted formally, making Anakin barely repress a growl. He hated being called that, but couldn't do anything against it at the moment... At least the anger about it made him look rather authentic. Vader had managed to _always_ be angry about something...

"What is it?" he asked as such, letting the man in to close the door behind him. He knew better than to speak of secret things where anyone could listen.

The man looked around the room for a short second before quickly beginning to talk, knowing that it was never a good idea to keep Vader waiting.

"Doctor Novar was just called into a conference. According to my information the person that wished to speak to him is the Emperor himself. I have no further information about the contents, it seems to be a secret."

Anakin would have frowned if he hadn't noticed the last time he had tried to do it that it hurt like hell. Palpatine wanted to speak with Novar? That just couldn't be a good thing...

"Alright, find out if there is any sort of connection between the two of them," he ordered as such. "I want anything even remotely suspicious about the doctor's contacts, understood?"

The spy saluted.

"Yes, sir!"

With that, the man went away again and Anakin hurried to one of the terminals, glad that as the commander of the ship he had various security codes that enabled him to easily hack into the communication system. After that it wasn't difficult to find the correct conversation, as it was the only one that currently went out from one of the conference rooms, and soon he had the two holograms of Palpatine and Novar in front of him.

"-hope you have made your plans with it?" Palpatine was just asking in an almost grandfatherly voice that made Anakin wish he could just put his lightsaber through that bastard's chest. He'd heard _that_ tone of voice often enough in his life already...

"Of course. The funds are very generous after all," Novar answered calmly. What where they talking about?

"Very well, I am glad to hear that. The Empire is in need of more doctors as thankful as you."

Anakin wished he could snort at this ridiculousness. As if Palpatine would ever be glad about _anything_ that didn't make another suffer. But he wasn't done talking yet it seemed.

"I must ask you another thing though... I have heard that you have rather frequent meetings with Lord Vader. May I ask the reason for that?" Even on the small figure Anakin could see Novar frowning and Palpatine must have seen it too, for he hastened to add something more. "Do not misunderstand me, I don't want to control you or anything, but Lord Vader is a very dangerous and instable man. You must realise that prolonged exposure to his temper might end your life rather quickly..."

"Yes, I have already heard of the fate that befell... my predecessors... Sadly, Lord Vader personally requested to see me, so I couldn't very well decline."

Anakin's eyes widened and he uttered a small, very much un-Vader-like curse. The man wouldn't betray him, would he...? It would make Palpatine instantly suspicious and he would probably have to make a run for it... He stared intently at the two holographs as Palpatine spoke again.

"He did? For which reason?"

Anakin contemplated for a moment if it would help to choke the doctor to keep him from talking. He knew he was able to do so over the distance, but doing so would make Palpatine just as suspicious, if not even worse... Damn it!

He never expected the following answer though.

"Well... As far as I understood he wanted to improve the system that keeps him alive. He's sick of it malfunctioning as he seems to be very dependant on it. But he's in need of a doctor to oversee the changes he wants to do just in case. No idea why he chose me for it though."

That left Anakin gaping, staring at the holograms once again.

Novar had lied. Lied to the Emperor himself.

That needed either some serious courage or an aversion to life. Or maybe a bit of both, the doctor _had_ been known for being rather reckless after all. With that in mind, Anakin barely listened to the rest of their conversation, as Palpatine did little more than keep his grandfatherly charade up, probably telling Novar that he could always contact him should Vader try anything. Of course, he needed his spies everywhere it seemed...

Still, the fact that Novar had flat out lied was bothering him. What if the man did the same to him? It wasn't as if he could detect any lies without ripping a person's mind apart - something he would prefer only doing to his enemies.

xxx

He was still deep in thought long after the conversation was done with, until another beeping of his door signalled a visitor again. Blinking a few times he pulled himself together to go back into 'Vader-mode' as he opened the door, wondering who was bothering him _now_.

To his surprise, it was Novar.

"Lord Vader," he greeted formally, once again looking calmer than Anakin would have imagined he could have done after such a conversation. He let the man in, remembering that they had in fact scheduled a meeting today and that Novar _was_ pretty late. But before he could even ask where he had been - it probably wasn't a good idea to show that he knew - Novar already spoke up again. "I'm sorry for my delay. The Emperor asked for my presence before so I needed to go there first."

Anakin blinked a few times at that, surprised that Novar was telling him this.

"Did he now?" he just answered as such, unsure if he should keep pressing the man for information. What was the motivation behind this?

Novar nodded.

"Yes. And I'm pretty sure he was trying to bribe me to stay away from you. You know, if I wouldn't be pretty sure that it's better that I don't know I would be tempted to ask what you did to make the Emperor so insistent on keeping you in pain... Anyway, I made an excuse and wanted to inform you so that our stories match when asked."

Why was this guy managing to throw him off balance so often? Again, Anakin couldn't do much else than gape at the man who was casually explaining to him how he had flat out lied into Palpatine's face. Still, in a way it was also highly suspicious and as such he couldn't help but be a little reserved as he answered.

"Who's telling you that I won't run straight to him to inform him of this? You do know that 'making excuses' in front of the Emperor might count as treason, don't you?"

Novar shrugged.

"Common sense. If you would tell the Emperor I lied you would have to explain what we really did. And the whole way you contacted me screams 'secrecy' to me. If you'd have no problem with the Emperor knowing about this you'd have done something about your condition long ago."

Anakin stared for a moment, before nodding.

"Point taken."

A moment of silence stretched on between them, before Anakin remembered that he wasn't supposed to know what exactly Novar had told Palpatine.

"So? What excuse did you make?"

"I told him you wanted some improvements to your life system as you were getting annoyed at its failures. It sounded believable enough to me as you _did_ kill the last batch of doctors because of some malfunction there, didn't you?"

"Those were bought lackeys. No use when hoping for an improvement of health," Anakin only answered. Still, his respect for the doctor did increase a bit, for this move had been rather courageous. Maybe reckless, but Anakin surely was the last person who had a problem with some recklessness.

No, the main problem would be keeping their stories in tune and their true work hidden. But it would be manageable, they both seemed to be ale to think creatively after all. His plans should be able to keep working for the time being.

* * *

 _I'm not exactly knowledgeable in the fields of medicine but I hope I pulled it off alright. I tried not to give too many details that could mess it up.  
_

 _A big thank you to all the reviewers! I hope you liked this chapter too. (And special thanks to StormPetal for the advice, I will warn for certain things at the top then if I think it might warrant one :) )_

 _Next chapter will probably be out sometime during the weekend, but I can't promise the updates will be staying that frequent, for at the moment I'm still mostly uploading already written stuff while working on writing more (currently at chapter five and I still have tons of ideas) Let's see how it will work out._


	4. Chapter 4

**Aeron Novar**

Aeron wasn't totally sure why he had chosen to lie to the emperor except for the simple reason that he didn't much like the man - especially not the grandfatherly charade, for Aeron wasn't naive enough to think the man ruling the empire in its current state would be able to have success without being absolutely ruthless - but at the same time he simply... pitied Vader. Something the other man probably didn't approve of, but he couldn't help it. It seemed that he had finally found a patient that needed his help more desperately than he himself knew, for even if one ignored the physical pain the man must be suffering every day there had to be some mental impact too, something Aeron himself wasn't yet able to see clearly.

In the end, he simply wanted to help Vader, no matter the consequences, and as such he kept pressing on the full Bacta treatment until the man finally gave in.

It needed a while longer, as Vader wanted to first make some other improvements to his suit - basically rebuilding parts of it completely, including the helmet - so that they could change suits directly after the treatment as he had to completely leave it before anyway.

In a way Aeron was very curious as such when the 'big day' finally came around and he and Vader met in his laboratory. Interestingly those rooms were not monitored, allowing the doctors free reign as to what to do there the same way they were allowed to order almost everything freely - a circumstance he and Vader excessively used to get the rarer parts the other man needed for his work. Whatever he was doing there, Aeron really didn't understand much of technology apart from the machines he used for medical purposes, but Vader was surprisingly adept in it and as such he let the man do whatever needed to be done on his end, content on ordering a few other helpful things, like medical droids. If anyone asked, he was using them for data storage regarding his studies on Bacta, something he was honestly interested in but never had the possibilities to fully discover.

Just then the door of the small chamber between the laboratory and the rest of the ship opened. As they were going to remove Vader's suit the air in the whole room had been sterilised, as had all of the things inside. Aeron was wearing sterilised clothes and even a breathing mask to keep the air as clean as possible. The small chamber had been used as a double door system, to clean the air and everything inside coming from the rest of the ship before letting it into the sterilised laboratory. He sure hoped that this would be enough to keep Vader from getting infected with anything - and that after their procedure it wouldn't be necessary anymore.

The man stepped into the room, moving his head slightly as he looked around until he stopped at the Bacta tank.

"This is it I assume," he said, making Aeron give off an agreeing noise.

"Exactly. I have already arranged all the necessary medical devices, the only thing left to do would be preparing you."

Vader nodded, although it was an obviously hesitant nod - rather fascinating, really, to watch someone as feared as Vader to display something like hesitation - before making his way up the stairs leading to a mezzanine which had the height of the Bacta tank, meaning one could easily enter it from there.

Aeron followed suit after making sure all of his equipment was on him and ready. It wouldn't do to start this sort of operation without being fully equipped after all.

xxx

Vader without his suit was probably one of the most disturbing things the doctor had seen in a while. After making sure all of Vader's life support systems were stable and plugged in externally for the time being - as his life support unit was not supposed to enter the Bacta tank with him despite being waterproof - they began with removing the man's limbs. Most of it was done in silence, but Aeron couldn't help but feel a little bit honoured that someone who knew him for just a few months now was trusting him with this - not that Vader had had many options, but still - and as such did his best to make it as painless as possible. Whoever had made the prostheses hadn't exactly taken care that they fit very well, but at least they could remedy that easily. He had already taken some prostheses from the supplies of the _Exactor_. There were enough, it wouldn't be easily noticeable, but it would probably improve Vader's life quite a bit.

Still, as the man sat in front of him, just a torso with a head, clad in simple shorts as they had had to remove the bandages that normally protected his burnt skin, it was really hard not to let pity taint his professionalism. At least they had chosen a date shortly after Vader's regular cleansing, where droids scrubbed away necrotic flesh, meaning that it was _relatively_ unblemished... But it looked like a miserable existence anyway, really.

"Alright. Everything else is ready now, if you are too I would now take off the helmet and exclude the last parts from the Bacta immersion before putting you in... What do you say?" he asked, trying to sound as collected as possible. He knew that this would be the critical part, for taking off Vader's helmet would give them only a short time frame to act, as even the clean air in the laboratory and the dimmed lights might hurt the man further, but there was no other way than that.

"Continue," Vader said after a moment, sounding determined and Aeron nodded, finally removing the helmet. Vader hissed slightly as it came off, probably as the needles left his skin, or as his eyes registered natural light again that wasn't filtered through the mask.

Damn, the guy looked _horrible_...

Aeron tried to be quick with isolating the ears, making sure that no Bacta would be able to reach them so that no harmful healing could be done, before finally taking a step back, giving Vader a thumbs up. They had agreed on Vader entering the Bacta tank himself and as such he squinted a moment against even the soft light, but finally seemed to concentrate as he levitated himself into the tank.

A moment later he was completely submerged with only the cables connected to parts of his torso going out of the tank and to the terminal showing various statistics of Vader's health. Something Aeron would now have to monitor closely for the next few hours, just to be sure.

He didn't quite know what excuse Vader had used for vanishing for two days - as that were the minimum time required for this process - but he himself would have to be seen on the ship a few times, so he had to be sure everything was working fine right now.

He checked the various statistics, making sure that Vader was still breathing regularly the way his machine made him do, checked his oxygen levels of his blood and other things like heart rate and basic brain activities.

At first everything seemed normal, but then he noticed something odd. Something he quickly identified as _pain_.

The healing was normally done with the subject being unconscious, but Vader had insisted on being awake... And now he was rather obviously in a lot of pain as the bacterial particles inside of the Bacta were beginning to do their job... His lungs must be burning up right now...!

Aeron hesitated. He knew he could easily add some medication into Vader's blood stream that would make him unconscious, but Vader had been very explicit when demanding to stay awake during the ordeal. He had said something about going into a meditative trance or something similar but... It didn't look like that to the doctor at the moment.

Dealing with an angry Vader also wasn't something he wanted to do, but... that kind of data was incredibly bothersome...

In the end, the rising pain level decided for him. He knew he would get trouble for this later, but at that moment he didn't care. Vader was in pain, and if he wanted to survive those two days halfway sane he needed to go unconscious. Healing of lungs, eyes and most of his remaining skin just wasn't done in an awake state. _He_ was the doctor after all.

He could only hope that this decision wouldn't put his life to an end the second Vader awoke again...

xxx

 **Anakin Skywalker**

When Anakin grew aware of his surroundings again, for a moment he felt surprisingly refreshed, although a little bit out of place...

And then the assault started and he was ripped from his dazed state as a mental force pulled against him, ripping him out of control for a moment.

For a second, both himself and Vader were 'on the backseat', but that second was all it took for Anakin to recover. Vader seemed similarly confused at least and as such their internal struggle was short, as Anakin's own hatred regarding that monster flamed up again, strengthening him against the onslaught of the spirit.

The second he was back in control he almost involuntarily shot up, only now realising that he was lying on some surface. He needed to lock Vader away completely again... But before he could do so a voice interrupted his concentration.

"Lord Vader, is everything alright?" Novar was asking, making the rage in Anakin only increase.

"I am _not_ Vader!" he snapped, realising much too late that this probably wasn't the best thing to say... But they were alone, thankfully, and as such he didn't care right now. Memories could be altered if necessary and he was way too furious to care much. "And I thought I explicitly told you _multiple times_ to not sedate me!"

Novar's face, that had changed from surprise to disbelief was now set on a frown.

"Well, excuse me, but I'm a doctor and you were in pain. Do you honestly expected me to sit idly nearby?"

"Yes!" Anakin answered angrily. "It's exactly what you should have done!" Damn it, this had almost cost him all he had worked for these last months, just because that idiot decided to knock him out cold because of a little pain! He could have managed, he knew he could have!

"What's your problem? In case you didn't notice, I saved you from a lot of pain!"

"Maybe there was a reason why I told you to not do it, did you never think-"

But Anakin couldn't continue to speak, for in that moment he felt his lungs contract almost painfully as he was out of air and he gasped at first before beginning to cough. He didn't know what was going on for sure, but his anger at the doctor vanished as he kept coughing and gasping for air alternately while black dots began to dance in his vision.

He could barely hear the doctor cursing, rushing over to him to keep him from falling off the table he was still sitting on.

"Calm down," Novar said in a soothing voice. "Concentrate on your breathing, take as deep breaths as you can... Steady..."

Damn this hurt...! But he closed his eyes, trying to concentrate on just that.

 _'Ohh, has the midget found a friend? I'll be more than delighted to choke this one to death in front of your eyes,'_ Vader's voice came from within, malicious glee apparent in it.

 _'Shut up!'_ Anakin answered, using the pain he was feeling to shut the other out again for the moment.

And slowly he did manage to calm down as he stopped coughing and breathed more evenly again until he could finally sit straight again, his vision slowly returning to normal.

"What... was that...?" he asked, breathlessly and carefully, not daring to talk more in fear of another fit of whatever this had been.

"Well... I am not one hundred percent sure as I didn't have a case like you before, but I am pretty sure this happened as your body is not used to breathing normally anymore. Since we turned off the machine that makes you breathe evenly you probably didn't breathe properly in your anger just now," Novar explained, making Anakin finally realise that he was without his helmet.

It might have seemed weird that he hadn't realised that before, but he had been aggravated and distracted, and all the years wearing the helmet had mostly been Vader, with him trying to ignore everything after a while...

But it was still incredible in a way, now that he noticed it. He could see normally again! Damn it, he could _breathe_! And the pain in his body had lessened in general, his skin wasn't hurting anymore as it touched the inside of the suit and Novar had obviously attached the new prostheses too, for the connection to his limbs didn't hurt anymore either...

His face must have betrayed his emotions for the doctor seemed almost proud when he spoke up again.

"Yes, everything worked out without complications. I removed the machinery that was helping you breathe and replaced the prostheses and your life unit of the suit with what we agreed on before. Your new helmet is lying next to you but I thought that you might prefer some time without it for now."

Anakin nodded slowly, even if it did sound almost too good to be true... Sure, it wasn't like he was totally free of any pain, for his ears were still badly damaged, even though they had already changed his implants, and his body in general was just too broken to function completely without pain, but it had considerably lessened. This was great!

Of course, Novar _had_ to ruin it by asking questions.

"So... What exactly did you mean by that 'I'm not Vader' statement earlier, huh?"

Anakin froze, unsure about what to do now... Could he still delete this memory from the doctor's mind? But changing memories over an extended period of time wasn't done easily... And he _really_ didn't want to kill the man who had helped him so much. But telling him about who he was might be even worse...

He blinked a few times as Novar waved a hand in front of his face.

"Hey, are you still there?"

He frowned slightly - thought shortly being distracted by the fact that it was even _possible_ for him to frown now - before focussing back on the doctor.

"Stop that, I need to think."

"Think about what? What lie you want to serve me to explain why you said that?" Novar asked casually, but his face was serious. It was obvious that he wouldn't appreciate it.

"Well, maybe that information could kill us both if it's ever revealed to anyone?" Anakin snapped back, before closing his eyes, trying to calm his breathing. There was no use in getting all worked up again, he didn't want to experience another coughing fit...

Calm...

"You know, if anyone ever finds out what we've been up to we will most likely be dead anyway," Novar commented dryly, making Anakin wince. He was right, of course, but that didn't mean he had to like it. "Look, you don't have to tell me anything, but if you don't want to be called Vader in private at least some explanation would be nice... I won't blab it out, trust me."

'Trust me'... Those were words Anakin certainly hadn't heard in a long time... And damn, he did want to trust someone again. He knew he had grown weary over the years, with only a backstabbing bastard for company, but... He didn't want to be totally paranoid, that was a typical Sith trait. He might not be a Jedi anymore, but if he ever wanted to redeem himself even a little he maybe should start acting like one again, at least in private...

Novar knew too much already anyway, there wasn't much else to be done if he didn't want to kill the man he guessed...

"You sure you want to hear it? If Palpatine ever finds out you know of this he'll kill you for sure," Anakin warned once again, but Novar nodded.

"I understand. But the second he notices I've lied to him I'll be good as dead anyway, I don't think there's much of a difference there."

Anakin nodded slowly. He had given him the choice to turn away, he couldn't do much else now.

"Alright..." He hesitated a moment longer, wondering how much he should say. He wasn't ready for the whole truth to get out right now, but it should be enough to satisfy Novar's curiosity. "Do you believe in the Force?"

Novar blinked in surprise.

"Well, it's kind of hard not to, being around you," he carefully said after a moment, before frowning. "Also, I may only barely have been an adult back then but I did live through the Clone Wars. I know the Jedi existed, no matter what the propaganda these days says."

Somehow it was very easy to forget that there were a lot of people still out there that had experienced the Clone Wars and knew of the Jedi... The propaganda of Palpatine did work very well, with even a lot of younger imperials thinking the force was a myth... But then again, a lot of people who were regularly around Vader surely thought different.

Anakin shook his head a little, trying to clear it from those distracting thoughts before talking again.

"Alright... Then you probably also know that there are two sides of the Force: The Light Side and the Dark Side, represented by the Jedi and the Sith." He waited until Novar nodded before continuing. "And... well, basically 'Vader' is what I would describe as some sort of... Sith spirit Palpatine stuck into my head."

There. It was out now and Anakin made a point of not looking into Novar's direction for the time being, opting to instead look down on his legs, marvelling at the much better quality of the prostheses to distract himself. He didn't want to see the other's reaction.

Silence reigned for a long moment between them, until Novar finally broke it.

"I guess you are not joking, are you?" he asked. Anakin shook his head and he sighed. "Thought so. So, how does this... spirit... express itself?"

"He's been... a bit like a second personality, in a way," Anakin said quietly, before elaborating. He didn't know why, but somehow talking about this felt relieving in a way, and as he had started he just wanted to get it all out now. "When he's in control, it's as if I'm sitting in the backseat of my mind, able to see and feel everything he does, but he's the one that controls my body. I only recently managed to regain control and lock him away for the time being... But he's never really gone. And when you knocked me out, it was as if we both were forced out of control for the time being, resulting in a struggle of control the moment I awoke."

He was looking up again, just in time to see realisation dawn on Novar's face.

"So _that_ was why you didn't want me to sedate you?"

"Yes."

Novar grimaced.

"Damn, I'm sorry. But next time, tell me of those things beforehand. I know realise why this is sensitive information, but... Still, as a doctor those things are important to know."

Anakin just shrugged lightly, making no promises. That just wasn't something you straight out told anyone, really. He wasn't even sure it had been the right thing to tell the doctor now, but... He hadn't really had another choice, so... He would actually have to try and trust the man, at least to an extent.

"So... If Vader is the spirit, what should I call you?" Novar finally asked, making Anakin think for a moment. Oh well, in the end, the damage was already done, so...

"Anakin."

The doctor blinked.

"Anakin?"

"Yes."

He didn't offer more information and Novar didn't ask, but in a way, at that moment they knew that they were in this mess together, and if they wanted to get out of it successfully they would have a _lot_ of planning to do...

* * *

 _So, Anakin is at least halfway painfree now, I hope you liked it and it didn't seem too rushed (for reference: The idea was that this happened around half a year after Anakin first took over control from Vader)  
Next chapter will have quite some action inside, so stay tuned! ;)  
_

 _Thanks again for the nice reviews, I sure hope you will keep liking how this story turns out!  
(Also, I hope that the current 'Two point of views per chapter' style is alright? I wasn't sure how many POVs to put in per chapter but for the time being it seems to work like that, although it might vary in the future, depending how long the individual parts are)  
_


	5. Chapter 5

_Small warning: There will be a fight scene at the end of this chapter. Not overly brutal but not nice either.  
_

* * *

 **Darth Sidious**

The Emperor was... displeased with his 'apprentice'.

Over the course of the last months Lord Vader had somehow managed to mellow a little. Sure, he was still having rather regular temper tantrums, but the death toll on his ship and sunken drastically as he had begun letting out a lot of steam on the interior instead. Although the last really big burst of anger _had_ killed the doctors Sidious had so carefully placed on his ship, replacing them with people not yet under his claim. Not that it had mattered, for only two of those were still on that ship, the other three having been replaced discreetly with other doctors that were more suited to his wishes.

He was the Emperor after all and it was his job to control everything, especially when it concerned his favourite toy.

For nothing more was the spirit of the ancient Sith Lord to him. He had made sure the contract he had used to bind the spirit was airtight, there was just no way he would get betrayed by it. And he knew Lord Vader must have wanted it more than once after being put into this suit, but Sidious didn't care. Lord Tyrannus hadn't been able to betray him even after he had understood that Sidious wanted young Anakin to kill him off, so Lord Vader wouldn't be able to do so either.

The only thing of mild concern now was that doctor that was still working with Lord Vader, Aeron Novar. He did seem harmless enough, with a past that was rather typical for older doctors these days and a clean record besides some rather reckless doings. But Sidious didn't like the fact that he was spending so much time with Lord Vader to improve his life systems. In fact, maybe he should pay him to make it worse instead? It would serve the Sith right to try and circumvent the order of not healing himself by at least improving his life support system...

But no, something about that man was off, he seemed almost too honourable to be bribed. As far as his spies had informed him he was _still_ using the gigantic research budget he had for real research! Most other doctors had long since begun to abuse the obscene amount of money they were getting, their orders weren't checked after all. They could order everything from drugs to slaves, as long as they didn't brag about it openly Sidious turned a blind eye. At least for as long as it was necessary until they had managed to get so deep into problems that they would either get themselves killed off or he could blackmail them to do whatever he wished.

No, that Novar person was _actually_ researching, using what was known as medical clones - the only type of clone the empire allowed the public as those had no consciousness, although even then it was heavily regulated and normally just used for medical research or by very rich people, to have a copy of their organs for emergencies - to get to know more about Bacta and prostheses, as well as all kinds of war injuries it seemed... Of course, he had saved many lives in wars, so it wasn't surprising that he went in that direction, but it still bothered Sidious. He would have to find a way to corrupt that man. At least it would prove an interesting challenge for the time being. If it didn't work he would simply dispose of him later.

Sidious stood up from the desk he had been sitting behind. Now, he had to do something about Lord Vader. Maybe he should order him back to Coruscant to bother him a bit, make him suffer a little more by putting him into political discussions, something he loathed with a passion... Anything to spike his anger once again. His toy was as good as useless if he wasn't angry at something.

Just then he noted how someone tried to contact him over the Holonet. And the signal came from Lord Vader's ship.

He pulled out his holoprojector and accepted the call. Nobody would call him from there if it wasn't extremely important. In fact, nobody ever called him as long as it wasn't important, he was making sure of that.

Immediately, the small hologram of one of his spies flickered to life.

Kneeling down, bowing his head, he began to talk.

"Your Highness, I am very sorry to disturb you but we have been able to locate another Jedi."

Sidious perked up. Now, _that_ was some good news. No matter how this would turn out, it would be certainly interesting to see...

"Where?" he asked as such, wanting to be sure that it wasn't one of the few force-sensitive beings in the galaxy he had special plans for.

"Dantooine, your highness."

Dantooine... That was quite some distance away. That Jedi must have possessed _some_ intelligence. But obviously not enough as he had been found.

"Very well. Hunt him," he finally said with a satisfied little smirk before ending the connection the second his spy had uttered his "Of course".

Another Jedi that would be erased. And maybe Lord Vader would get some of his fire back when confronted with an old enemy. Not that this meant he wouldn't have to get punished later, but maybe Sidious could spare him Coruscant and only sent him out to the most peaceful and boring patrols he could find... That would depend on the man's performance with the Jedi. They would have to wait and see.

xxx

 **Anakin Skywalker**

Anakin was in the middle of his meditation - the only thing he had when he was exhausted for he didn't dare to try sleeping in fear of Vader overtaking him afterwards - when the beeping noise of his door ripped him out of it, making him glare a little at the offending piece of technology.

Damn, he already couldn't sleep, so why bother him the only time when he could at least be halfway calm?

Quickly pulling back on his helmet - he had taken to use all the time he could to walk without it, at least in his private quarters, for while it did provide some comfort it also reminded him way too much of Vader, especially with how it faked the sound of the automated breaths he had been forced to take before - he walked to the door, opening it, staring at the man who stood in front of it.

"Lord Vader, we've found another Jedi!" the man reported, his voice quivering only slightly.

Anakin froze. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all. He had completely forgotten how Vader was always busy looking for Jedi he could kill, even though Vader always made sure Anakin got the full picture of the death and...

He stopped that train of thought before it could overwhelm him, trying to instead focus on his anger at Vader.

"Where?" he asked as such, letting as much anger flow into his question as possible.

"D-Dantooine, my lord."

"Well? Are we already on our way?"

"Of course...!"

"Good. Call me once we arrived."

With that he simply turned around, closing the door behind himself, waiting only a moment until the soldier surely had hurried away, before cursing quietly.

A Jedi.

What was he supposed to do? He wouldn't kill a Jedi, no matter how much Vader loved to do it... Could he maybe convince the Jedi to flee? He thought about it for a while, but he had no better idea...

Somehow he would have to get a Jedi to listen to "Darth Vader" who told him to flee... Oh joy.

But maybe, just maybe... If the Jedi would listen to him... Maybe they could actually talk? He missed the Jedi horribly... Another something he could never forgive himself, being so easily manipulated by Palpatine... But most of his hatred lay with the Emperor anyway, for he had been the one to kill all the Jedi with this stupid order. And he would pay, once Anakin was strong enough to kill him.

Still, for now he could do nothing more than hope. Hope that he would somehow be able to negotiate with the Jedi. He couldn't kill him, it just didn't work... But he also couldn't let him flee just like that, for that would make his Vader disguise look bad... What to do, what to do...?

xxx

The time went by way too fast for Anakin's liking and soon they had arrived at Dantooine, stopping only a short distance away, and he was speeding towards the planet's surface in Vader's personal starfighter long before he could have thought out any kind of good plan. Which meant that in the end he decided to let it play out, hoping for the best. He didn't have many other choices anyway.

So when he arrived on Dantooine, his spies already having directed him to the last place where the Jedi was sighted, he tried his best to calm his racing heart as he began his search for the Jedi.

Not that there was much of a search, for while the Jedi seemingly had managed to hide his presence in the force from afar pretty good Anakin could sense the person the moment he had left his ship near the settlement the spies had pointed him towards.

Following the basic direction the Force was telling him he quickly arrived at the group of buildings, knowing that the presence was somewhere nearby. But his sense of people was no location device, so he wasn't able to detect the exact place it was coming from. Instead, he began to feel something entirely different though... Besides the Jedi's presence he could also feel a certain dark aura. Not a person, it was much too small for that, but... It did intrigue him in a way. If there were things giving off a force signature like that, the probability of them being near a force-sensitive person was rather high after all, wasn't it?

As such he quickly followed the presence that he could feel a lot stronger then the presence of a person and as such he quickly arrived in front of a small hut. It didn't look any different to the other huts around, but Anakin was sure the dark presence came from within. So he did the only sensible thing: He knocked.

Sadly, if there was somebody inside he didn't agree that opening the door would be the best idea, but the door also wasn't sealed or anything, so after a moment of hesitation he finally opened it, on his guard just in case, before slowly stepping inside.

The hut was decorated only with a bare minimum of furniture, the only interesting thing being a cupboard, as it was almost glowing with energy. Some powerful artifacts must have been inside, but Anakin really didn't want to make the situation worse by first checking out the Jedi's place before trying to talk to him, so instead he focussed on trying to locate the Force user better by concentrating, sending out his senses in hopes of finding anything helpful...

xxx

Which was how he noticed the hidden trapdoor in the end, posing as a carpet but leading down first into some sort of small cellar that soon broadened into a cave.

Anakin at first didn't understand why anyone would want to connect his house with a cave, even if that might make for a nice escape plan if all else failed, but then, after he had walked around a few corners he noticed that the cave at that point wasn't made out of stone anymore.

He was inside of a crystal cave. All kinds of crystals were growing from the sides and the ground, small and big alike, making the cave walls look a bit spiky but beautiful all the same, for the little light falling in made them glitter in different colours... Blues, greens and yellows where casting dots of light throughout the cave, which was rather fascinating, and the cave itself felt... powerful, in a way. It was just a very weak feeling, not even noticeable from aboveground, but in here it felt as if being submerged in a very thin layer of the Force... Reminding him rather strongly of the crystal cave on Ilum, where he had made his first lightsaber...

He couldn't quite explain it, but the feeling fascinated him enough to stop for a moment to just look around, until his eyes fell on one of the yellow crystals. It wasn't a special one, looking like all the other yellow crystals too, but something in it made him want to take it with him... And he hated Vader's red lightsaber anyway, so maybe it was time to create a new one?

Using the Force to break it off after another moment of hesitation he put it into one of the pockets of his suit, deciding to focus on it more once he had found the Jedi.

As such he kept walking, going deeper into the cave, following its narrow ways for a bit longer until suddenly, he felt the dire need to jump back.

Not one to ignore a feeling like that he did what it told him to, just in time to see a blue lightsaber come down where he had just stood a second before.

Eyes wide he barely had time to realise that this must be the Jedi he was looking for as said person charged forward, forcing him to retreat further back into the small tunnel he had just been walking through as he quickly evaded the slashes by backward jumps.

But he was far from being agile in this suit, so he knew he couldn't keep this up, he need to act now.

"Stop!" he shouted out, trying to distract the Jedi from his attacks. "I'm not here to hurt you."

The Jedi didn't answer, but finally managed to prepare a hit Anakin knew he wouldn't be able to evade with his current speed. Cursing in his head he drew his lightsaber, turning it on just in time to block the blow that otherwise might have cut him in a half.

"No? Then why did you draw your lightsaber, eh?" the Jedi hissed angrily, but Anakin barely listened, for as they stood there, their lightsaber pressed against one another he finally recognised his opponent.

Jax Pavan, a Jedi he had once seen almost as a friend... And Vader had met him once already, taking great pleasure out of the fact that they had known each other as he fought him and his little friends.

"Please, I just want to talk!" he tried again, trying to ignore how even through the changes the helmet did to his voice to make it sound more metallic one could hear it quivering slightly.

"Talk," Jax scoffed, jumping a little back, but only to charge in again a moment later. "Don't think I'll fall for that cheap ruse, _Anakin_."

Anakin froze at that, only barely able to raise his lightsaber in time to not get stabbed by Jax's.

"Surprised that I know? Well, you gave me the hint for it yourself!" the Jedi spat, pushing his lightsaber closer. "Do you even remember me?"

He then jumped back again, soon falling into the patterns of Makashi, the second form of light lightsaber combat. And probably the best fitted for the tight paths in this cave...

Doing his best to defend himself Anakin tried to retreat as far as possible, knowing that the path would broaden later on, giving him more options. But damn, he did not want to hurt Jax at all if possible!

"Of course I do! Please listen to me... I know it must seem weird, but I want to help you escape...!"

Pax snorted.

"Yeah sure. The same way you wanted the younglings in the temple to escape?"

That shocked Anakin enough for Jax to be able to actually land a hit to his side, and though it was merely grazing him it was searing his clothes and the flesh below.

He barely noticed, staring ahead at the Jedi who by now seemed surprised to actually have landed a hit, stopping for a moment.

 _'Now, now... That doesn't work at all... Come on, kill the Jedi for his impudence,'_ Vader's voice whispered in the back of his head, making him shake his head.

"No..." he muttered, barely noticing how he spoke those words out loud instead of thinking them.

That brought Jax out of his short pause.

"Save your breath, Sith!"

And with that, his attacks were up again, but at least the short moment had been enough for Anakin to get back into his defencive stance. The pain of the wound helped a little too as it helped him staying with the present instead of slipping too far into the past with his thoughts...

Not that Vader was helping.

 _'Kill him, you know he deserves it... He's not even a real Jedi anymore, being so angry... Look, there is an opening, just a quick stab could end him...!'_

He kept commenting _everything_ , with Anakin being to busy with blocking Jax's strikes to be able to focus enough to shut him out again. It was driving him mad!

Until after a particular annoying slash that would probably have cost him his arm hadn't he parried it he slowly lost his patience.

"Damn it, just _listen to me_!"

In his exasperation he sent out a wave of pure Force, hoping to finally get some distance between them to not having to constantly worry about not being killed because he couldn't fight back!

But when he regained his senses he gasped in horror.

Instead of just being pushed away, his Force push seemingly had sent Jax flying back directly onto one of the crystals that were poking out of the wall, impaling him in the process.

"No!" Anakin shouted, rushing over to the Jedi in hopes of being able to help course, he was no healer, but he could do some first aid... He needed to help him!

He wasn't prepared for the searing hot pain that flared up at his shoulder though as he was still trying to find a way to maybe somehow remove the man from the crystal without him dying, making him cry out in surprise and pain.

"Traitor..." Jax whispered, his voice barely audible as he let go of his lightsaber that he had just rammed into Anakin's shoulder, looking up at him with hatred in his eyes. "I... knew it... Evil... Sith..."

Only a moment later his eyes grew glassy and his head dropped down as he wasn't able to hold it up anymore.

Anakin certainly felt the slight tremor in the Force as the Jedi in front of him passed on, but it was overshadowed by the tremor that went through his body as he realised that he had just killed a Jedi. In person. Not because he had intervened at a bad time through being manipulated by another, who had then killed the disarmed Jedi. Not because of Vader controlling the body. No. He had killed the man who had once been a comrade, a Jedi who had just wanted to hide from Vader's tyranny...

 _What had he done?_

 _'Oh my, I didn't know you had it in you Anakin,'_ Vader's voice commented, sounding sadistically amused. _'You killed your first Jedi... How was it? Did you feel the power as his life left? It's addictive, isn't it...?'_

"Shut up!"

 _'Don't deny it... It was you alone who killed the guy... You did something where I missed my opportunity, so, dare I say, I must even thank you for helping me with that...!'_

No... No...! But no matter how much Anakin wanted to forget it, he did remember that Jax had already faced Vader once, but survived... And now, it had been _him_ who had killed the Jedi, not Vader... There was some truth to Vader's words after all, no matter how much he wanted to deny it...

When Vader lurched forward, ripping the control over his body from him again Anakin barely noticed, his thoughts whirling around the fact that he had just killed an innocent, just killed a Jedi... Was he growing to be like Vader after all...?

* * *

 _Sorry for the slight cliffhanger? I will update again soon though, so no worries ;3  
Also, in case anyone knows canon Jax Pavan: I'm pretty sure he'd not normally behaving like that, but there _is _a reason behind his behaviour._

 _Thanks a lot for all the reviews, I'm always very happy when I see a new one has been written!  
Thanks (again) also to knobrien21 for the interesting suggestion. While I do have some parts of the story already plotted out rather detailed already in my head I'm always open for suggestions, and sometimes those can help the story to get even better. :)_


	6. Chapter 6

**Darth Vader**

It was... exhilarating to be in control again. He had been at the front for so long that he had almost forgotten how good it felt to be able to move freely and do whatever he liked. More so, since the boy had decided on improving the suit - something he would have never been able to do without the Emperor's agreement - the experience was so different now, everything was clearer and way less painful... Of course, the burning on his side and the injury of his shoulder did still hurt, but the latter had been blunted a little by his suit, making the actual injury a lot less bad than it could have been. It was nothing compared to the constant pain he had lived through those last years, so he simply ignored it for the time being, repressing the pain through the Force as he had always done, pulling his cloak over the injuries to make them disappear from view for now.

What additionally lifted his mood was the malicious joy of seeing the midget in despair. Vader wasn't even sure if he had realised that he wasn't in control anymore, but he loved the anguished thoughts he was overhearing at times. It was probably a good thing that he was wearing his helmet for the grin on his face might have disturbed people even worse than the helm did.

Still, after looking at the dead Jedi for a few moments longer, savouring the fact that he didn't even have to lift a finger for it - sure, he would have loved to kill the Jedi himself, but like that it had been a _lot_ more fun - he took the lightsaber of the fallen man before turning around, leaving the cave the way Anakin had come from. He had been able to watch the scene since the boy had landed on Dantooine's surface already for he had been too nervous to keep up the barrier that had stopped Vader from listening, and as such he could now easily pry open the storage cabinet of the small hut the Jedi had lived in to see what the dark presence was. He was presented with three Holocrons, two dark and one light, as well as a datapad. Deciding not to risk things he took everything, putting it into a pocket of his suit before leaving the hut in a rather relaxed manner, walking back to his starfighter to fly back to the _Exactor_. Oh, he had almost missed that ship. Not really, but _almost_.

xxx

When he arrived at the Star Destroyer a lot of his good mood had already evaporated again though, for Anakin had - after finally realising what had happened - tried to fight him, almost making him crash their ship into an asteroid, but this time Vader had kept the upper hand, with the other being so weak just because he had killed some stupid Jedi. After that the boy had gone back into his usual catatonia, which was pretty boring.

Without the distraction and because flying a starfighter did require a lot of armwork his wounds also began to hurt worse, so he probably had to visit one of the doctors later, which additionally annoyed him to no end. He was a Sith Lord - a Darth, even! - there should be nothing he couldn't do by himself!

As such, after he had left his TIE fighter he wasn't very happy anymore, but after some random man had come up to him to get his neck snapped he was feeling a little better at least. So he ordered the next best man to tidy up the village, taking whatever seemed useful for the Empire, before giving the lightsaber to one of the officers.

"Take that to the Emperor. As soon as possible," he said menacingly, making the man gulp and nod, giving a salute.

"Yes Lord Vader!"

He hurried away and Vader did the same, wanting to finish all of this standard procedures as quickly as possible. Walking directly into his private quarters he used his holotransmitter to directly connect to the Emperor.

Soon enough, the hologram flickered into live and Vader knelt before it, the way the contract forced him to, willing the Force to subdue his pain for a moment longer.

"My master," he began, sounding a lot more submissive than he would have liked. "I have eliminated the Jedi for you. He was called Jax Pavan. His lightsaber is on the way."

"Very well, Lord Vader," the Emperor answered, keeping his voice neutral though. "Your next objective will be a patrol." Vader growled internally. A patrol?! Those were probably the most boring missions ever! What had that boy _done_ to make the Emperor punish him like that? "I will send you the route shortly. Be thorough."

"Of course."

With that, the call ended, leaving Vader to stare at the space where the Emperor had just been for a moment longer, before actually growling. Oh how he _hated_ that man! One day he would find a way to overthrow him for sure.

But for now he had more urgent things to do. He still had a few very interesting artefacts with him and he needed to at least let somebody look at his wounds. While lightsabers thankfully didn't cause bleeding he _did_ have two rather nasty burns, and while that weak Jedi hadn't even managed to actually pierce through anything it still hurt a lot.

But first things first. He stood up again and blocked Anakin completely out of his mind. He then walked over to the narrow bit of blank wall just between two of the terminals in his room, pressing on a certain part of it, which gave off a soft clicking sound before finally revealing what he had dubbed his 'Treasure Chamber'. It had originally been the part of the captain's suite reserved for the bed, but since Vader never slept he had repurposed it into this. It was a room with all kinds of things he had taken from the Jedi he had killed. Holocrons, lightsaber crystals, several different insignias they had worn... He even had a metal hand he had cut off from a Jedi master after one of the most challenging fights he had had in centuries. And he was just putting the new Holocrons and the journal there too, when he heard the door of his quarters opening.

Who dared entering his chambers without permission?!

He rushed out of his room, only to stop mid-step as he saw the person. It was this doctor Anakin had spent a lot of time with... And Vader didn't even know his name! But oh well, he didn't have to. He just had to pose as the boy for this short moment, get healed... And then he could kill the guy off, just to make Anakin suffer a little. Yes, that sounded like a good plan. A lot better than having to look for one of the other doctors that would probably be somewhere in their 'laboratories' with slaves, drugs or other things that were semi-legal at best.

"Uh... Hey," he said, trying to sound a bit more insecure. Insecurity really wasn't his strength but he had been sharing a body with Anakin for quite a while now, he did know a few things about the boy. Including part of how he acted. In some situations at least.

The doctor nodded at him.

"So? How did it go?"

Vader grimaced a little. Tricky question here...

"I managed to convince him to flee," he finally lied, trying to sound relieved, as he knew that he could never fake the kind of despair the idiot boy was currently exhibiting just because of one lousy little kill. "But there was a small fight before... I fear he got me twice."

The doctor grimaced a little, but nodded.

"Alright, I already thought so, so I brought my first aid kit with me. Do you want to do it here or in the laboratory?"

Vader thought for a moment.

"I don't care, here's fine," he finally answered, although in fact preferring this option a lot. It would be much easier to dispose of the man here, where nobody would ever be around to witness anything...

The doctor nodded again and put the bag he had taken with him - the first aid kit, it seemed - onto Vader's desk.

"Okay, just give me a minute to prepare everything. Maybe sit down somewhere meanwhile."

Hating to get ordered around by a guy who wasn't even Force sensitive he nodded anyway, knowing that this would be over much faster if he cooperated, before walking over to a chair, unfastening his cloak and shoulder pads to give the doctor basic access to the wounds. He was just glad that somehow whatever Anakin and the doctor had done had healed his skin pretty well, so that there wasn't such a big risk of infection anymore as it had been before, where such a wound might as well have been fatal for him.

"What kind of injuries are we talking about?" the doctor asked just then, ripping him out of his thoughts.

"A lightsaber cut in my left shoulder and some burns at my right side."

Thankfully the guy really was quick and as such he soon walked over with some damp cloth in hand, grimacing a bit as he saw the cut.

"Alright, I will first have to clean the wound and reopen it, that might hurt a bit more... Afterwards a Bacta compress should do the rest, although you might be out of action for a few days. But anyway: You ready?"

Vader nodded, impatiently. Less talking, more doing!

But after a moment he had to hiss. Damn, what kind of disinfectant did the guy use? Or was this already what he had said before, reopening the wound?

He didn't know, but thankfully it didn't last long before a compress was put on his shoulder, covering the cut. The feeling of the cool fluid on his bare skin wasn't much better either, but at least it should be well again very soon. The Bacta they had been using to heal this body must have been extremely potent and he couldn't imagine that this idiot doctor would use any other stuff for healing Anakin. He would really have to kill him... Though why was he feeling rather light-headed all of a sudden...? There was definitely something going on...

When it dawned on him that the doctor probably had done something he jumped up, ripping the Bacta compress away - just in case - but the damage was already done, for he was feeling dizzy and before he could do more than raise his arm in hopes of Force choking the doctor his world had turned black and he fell. Oh that bastard would pay for that...

xxx

 **Aeron Novar**

As Aeron was watching the unconscious body of... well, either Vader on Anakin, he wondered for a moment what a strange turn his life had taken.

From being a military surgeon to becoming the personal doctor of a guy who seriously needed all the help he could get... It was strange, but he didn't really feel bad about it. Somehow he had managed to grow to like Anakin, even though he was still at times a little confused regarding the man's behaviour. He didn't exactly act his age and Aeron sometimes couldn't help but feel like he was dealing with a person who, though intelligent, had some sort of mental illness... The sudden mood swings were certainly a hint for that and it made interacting with Anakin a bit more difficult.

Still, he would do whatever he could to improve the other's life, and if that meant standing up against Vader then so be it. It seemed that even a spirit possessing a body wasn't immune to strong narcotics. Fortunately.

xxx

About an hour later Aeron was sitting next to the unconscious body, reading some sort of journal from a datapad he had found in this weird room that had suddenly appeared as he hadn't been able to hold in his curiosity. He knew it probably wasn't the most polite thing to do when alone with another person's stuff, but after making sure Vader would pose as little threat as possible should he wake up again - he had removed his arms and legs before putting him onto a machine that could pump even more narcotics into him if necessary - he had grown bored...

He did look up the second the other man's head started to move though.

Aeron tensed almost involuntarily as the man groaned, gripping the controls of the system harder. One button would flood the other's system with more narcotics... He was not easily frightened, but he did know that if Vader won the internal fight they must be having just now he would probably get choked faster than he could think, so he had to be on his guard...

But when the other did open his eyes - visible now as Aeron had removed the helmet - there was no immediate reaction. He looked around for a few moments before noticing Aeron, blinking.

"Doctor...? What's going on?" he asked, still sounding a bit groggy but also partly angry. "What did you do to my arms and legs?"

Aeron looked at him questioningly for a moment, wondering if this was just a ruse or the real Anakin. It was honestly hard to tell, before he had only gotten suspicious because Vader had kept his helmet on, though Anakin normally removed it as quickly as possible... He could never be sure of course, he wasn't even sure if Vader truly _was_ something like a Force spirit or maybe just a second personality of Anakin... Still, he very much preferred talking to Anakin, so...

"Doctor Novar?"

He should probably answer...

"Yes, sorry about that. I just wanted to make sure I wouldn't get killed instantly," he said, returning his focus to reality. "How much do you remember?"

Now, he could only hope that it really hadn't been Anakin before, or he would be in for some serious trouble now.

"I..." Anakin frowned slightly, before his eyes widened as an expression of horror settled on his face. "Oh no... I... killed that Jedi... I was trying to talk to him but he kept attacking me and I was defending myself but he didn't stop... And then Vader started bothering me and I pushed the Jedi away into a crystal..."

Aeron's eyes widened. Well, that did sound more like something Anakin would say - and if he was honest with himself he had already feared that the Jedi would not be able to get convinced of Darth Vader's sudden change of heart - but damn it, this accidental kill sounded really like a horrible thing... No wonder Anakin was panicking just then... But he needed to calm down...

"Anakin," he tried to call him, but the other didn't seem to be listening, muttering things like 'I didn't want to do that' and 'I should have let him kill me' under his breath, things that made the concern Aeron had regarding the man suddenly grow a lot worse.

"Anakin!"

Still no reaction.

"Skywalker!"

To be honest this had just been a guess on his part, something he had thought about ever since Anakin had told him his name. While 'Anakin' had been a moderately popular name during the Clone Wars the man was too old to be born only then, and the probability of more Jedi besides the famous 'Anakin Skywalker' having that name also wasn't too high.

Thankfully, his guess seemed to prove correct, as Anakin suddenly perked up, looking at him in shock.

"How did you...?"

Aeron raised an eyebrow.

"What? Did you really think I'd never think about the topic of your last name when you gave me the name 'Anakin'? You were a very popular man back during the Clone Wars... Also, I researched a bit and it's fascinating to note that the last known record of Anakin Skywalker happened just a little before Darth Vader's first appearance... Of course, most people who know this think Vader killed Skywalker, but... that's not the case, isn't it?"

Anakin blinked for a few times before sighing.

"You're right, it isn't."

He didn't offer more information and Aeron knew better than to pressure him for those now. There was only one thing he was actually interested in he thought might be save to ask.

"How old are you?"

"Huh?"

Anakin looked confused but Aeron just repeated his question. He wanted to see...

"Twenty-three." Aha! "Uh, I mean... what year is it...?"

Aeron shook his head, his thoughts confirmed. He didn't quite know why or how, but that Anakin wasn't behaving in quite the same way he would expect a man that must have been almost forty - actually, considering the date Anakin Skywalker had vanished he was _exactly_ forty - was pretty obvious. And if this... spirit... possession... split-personality thing had really been as worse as it seemed it was no wonder that his perception of time was pretty skewed.

"Nevermind. So, you were twenty-three when Vader took control from you?"

Anakin nodded, looking uncomfortable, but whether it was at having given out that information so easily or at fearing Aeron would ask more questions like that the doctor didn't know.

He wouldn't ask more for now at least though, so instead he focussed back on the present. He knew Anakin wouldn't like it but there was something else they still had to talk about.

"So... about that Jedi..." he began and, predictably, Anakin's face turned dark again, bordering on desperate. But before he could open his mouth Aeron continued. "I know you are bothered by it, but... Did I understood it correctly and he attacked you first, with you defending yourself until pushing him away, which made him land on something sharp, killing him?"

Anakin nodded, his face pain-stricken. He looked like he was already working through a thousand things already in blaming himself. But damn it, Aeron couldn't just leave it be, the guy needed to understand how some things simply _happened_...

"Anakin, listen to me: It wasn't your fault." When Anakin opened his mouth to protest he held up a hand. "You didn't push him into the crystal on purpose, did you?"

"No, but-"

"And did you just leave him there?"

"No, I tried to help him, but it was already too late and-"

"So you did everything you could in that situation, right? You're not a trained doctor and if that Jedi kept attacking you before he might not even have accepted your hel-"

"But he was a _friend_!"

Aeron winced. The situation just got worse and worse it seemed...

"I knew Jax back from when we were both still Padawans... How _could_ I...?" Anakin whispered, sounding horribly broken.

Somehow Aeron wanted to give him a hug, the guy seemed like he needed one... But he refrained, instead frowning a bit as the name registered in his brain.

"Jax? As in, Jax Pavan?"

Anakin stared at that.

"Y-You knew him?"

"Well... not exactly. But there was his journal in your side room..." Aeron answered, hoping Anakin wouldn't be too angry. But instead he just seemed confused, temporarily distracted from the thoughts of his dead friend.

"What side room...?"

Aeron raised his eyebrows, pointing at the still open door.

"That one?"

"Uh... I think I've never seen that opening before..."

Huh... now, that was strange.

"Well, it was open when I entered your quarter," Aeron said, getting up to get Anakin's prostheses. He couldn't leave the poor guy without limbs forever after all, even if he might have temporarily forgotten about it.

"I... don't know about it. What's inside?"

"All kinds of stuff, really. Looks like a trophy room of some sorts to me... Did you or Vader collect polyhedra by any chance? There are quite a few cubes and pyramids in there..." he explained as he connected first the legs and then the arms back to Anakin. He knew it sounded rather ridiculous, but something of it must have reminded the other of something for he gasped.

"Cubes and pyramids? About as big as a hand, different colours?"

Aeron blinked. Was he missing something here?

"Yes...?"

Anakin jumped up the second his limbs had all been reattached to take a look into the room, looking around with wide eyes before suddenly freezing completely.

Frowning, Aeron walked towards him, wondering what had him in such a state of shock. Yes, there were a few colourful objects, but nothing really screamed 'special' to him. Right now it seemed Anakin was staring at a dodecahedron that was for some reason put in the middle of the room up on some sort of pedestal. As if it was anything special?

"The Great Holocron...!" Anakin whispered, sounding totally amazed. "I thought it was lost forever."

"Is that some Jedi artefact?" Aeron asked, but it was ignored by Anakin who instead raised a hand to the dodecaeder - or holocron, or whatever - concentrating for a moment until the thing began to hover a bit, emitting a soft glow. Immediately afterwards a small hologram appeared, making Aeron stare in surprise. What was the other doing? It didn't look mechanical, so... Was this thing somehow Force-powered...?

"Greetings, Jedi Knight," the human male said politely. "What is it that you wish to hear today?"

"Uhh..." Anakin seemed surprised at first, but it soon turned into thoughtfulness before he spoke again. "Just give me a list of entries about the battles during the Great Hyperspace War."

Aeron wondered what use _that_ particular information for when the hologram actually delivered a list. Since Aeron wasn't exactly knowledgeable in that topic the only battle he had even heard from before was the Battle of Coruscant, but there were a lot more, each being presented with a name behind, though most names were the same.

Anakin listened intently before finally nodding.

"Thank you. That was all."

"As you wish."

The hologram disappeared, leaving the two men in silence for a moment before Aeron spoke up again.

"So, mind telling me what this was about _now_?"

Anakin turned around in surprise, as if he had forgotten he wasn't alone.

"Yeah, sorry... This is... the Great Holocron. Basically a data storage unit that can only be accessed by those able to use the Force. It had been thought lost after the... massacre... in the Jedi temple..." At that, Anakin seemed torn for a moment - while Aeron was wondering what he was talking about, he had never heard of a massacre in the Jedi temple! Still, finally Anakin continued to speak. "Anyway, as far as I can see it's the real one. I can't imagine anyone would copy it that carefully... And I've had to listen to those history explanations for _ages_ when I was still a Padawan."

"Ah..." He wasn't sure if he was now much better off than before, but at least it seemed to be a good thing that they had somehow recovered a valuable Jedi artefact. The main problem was that he was still thinking about why they had started talking about this room in the first place...

It seemed that Anakin had forgotten about it already - something that added to Aeron's fear that the other man's mind wasn't the most stable anymore - but it was pretty safe to say that he would be reminded of it again and it was probably better if he at least knew more about what Aeron had originally planned to tell him.

"So... I know this might not be the best time since I'm sure it's great that you found this holo...cron thing there, but... I think there is something I should tell you about Jax Pavan."

The change of mood was instantaneous once again, going from appreciative to grief-stricken in a moment, making Aeron wince a little. He felt horrible for bringing that up for a third time now, but he tried to justify it by what he had to say.

Walking over to Anakin he put a hand on his shoulder, looking into his eyes seriously.

"Listen: It. Was. Not. Your. Fault! Like I said, I've been reading Jax's journal" - well, skipping through it mostly, the Jedi had liked to write very elaborate entries, but still - "and there was already something going on with him..." As Anakin didn't react, Aeron took it as a cue to continue. "I think he slowly went mad... At the beginning he was writing about keeping something safe from... well, Vader's fingers, hoping that Dantooine would be too far away for him to ever find it, though he never specified what 'it' was exactly. But the longer he kept writing in this the more paranoid he became and in the end these pages are filled with hatred! Hatred against Vader, mostly. His last entry even hints that he knew you were coming. I think he intended his whole discovery to be a trap for Vader..."

"But... I'm _not_ Vader, damn it!" Anakin said, walking out of the room again to sit down on his chair, putting his head into his hands. "I'm not him..."

"Well, _I_ know that, but... How should Jax have known it?" Aeron asked softly, having followed suit. "The suit you are wearing _is_ the trademark of Vader, no matter who is actually under that mask... There was just no way for this situation not to end with one of you dead or heavily injured, he was set on killing you."

Anakin shook his head, obviously still in denial, but to be honest, Aeron hadn't expected him to change his opinion that quickly anyway.

"Look, I'm not saying you should immediately accept it, but at least try to think about it, alright? Jax wasn't the same person you once knew and he was set on killing you. It was either you or him and it was an _accident_. Those things happen, and although they can be difficult to overcome time normally helps..."

Anakin shrugged, but Aeron hoped that his words would at least have _some_ effect, so he sighed quietly before changing the topic back to the holocrons. Anakin probably deserved a break for now, there wasn't much else they could do...

* * *

 _So, there was a little of Ani angst, and I fear this hasn't been the last of it... But well, this_ is _a Hurt/Comfort story so I suppose it is to be expected in a way.  
_

 _Anyway, thank you for the reviews, happy to hear that you like it! :)  
(And bugaboo13: Your questions will be answered in time, no worries!)  
_


	7. Chapter 7

**Anakin Skywalker**

The next weeks were filled with studying various holocrons. It had turned out that Vader - for who else could have added that room to their quarters? - had collected quite the amount of them, Jedi and Sith alike, and as such Anakin had a lot of topics to work through. Since Palpatine had ordered to patrol the quietest routes the Empire had, shortly after the Dantooine incident, he even had enough free time to do so, with the rest of the _Exactor_ glad that he wasn't out a lot.

Sadly, most of the holocrons were infuriatingly boring.

He had started with the Jedi ones, but those he had checked had been made by old Jedi masters who wanted to explain the history of some events long forgotten or how the Living Force worked with a certain Flora only existing on a planet somewhere in the Outer Rim...

He had stopped looking at those when he had stumbled upon one from a Jedi he had known, a Jedi master from the order that... hadn't survived the massacre...

But the Sith holocrons weren't much better, for even just listening to their gatekeepers listing their contents already made Anakin sick. Who wanted to know how to best torture a prisoner without him dying for a prolonged period of time?!

That was, until he stumbled over one whose gatekeeper was claiming something Anakin had always thought was impossible.

"This holocron was made for only one reason: To show others how to split a spirit from one body and bind it to another," said the gatekeeper, making Anakin stare for a few seconds, wondering if he understood it correctly.

"Repeat please?" he asked, and the gatekeeper repeated what he said.

It sounded... almost too good to be true.

"Alright, explain."

The gatekeeper stared at him for a moment, before nodding.

"I am Set Harth and after studying the holocron from Darth Andeddu, that held the original secret of transferring a spirit into another body, I devised my own method, using a different approach," the hologram began, sounding proud of himself. "With Darth Andeddu's method it was possible to let the full essence of yourself - or in rare cases other people - flow into another body over prolonged skin contact, but with my method you will be able to do this in a flash, only needing a second of contact if you know how to do it. The only thing anyone undergoing this will need is a high pain tolerance, for this will not be painless, but you will be able to specifically use this method for moving souls or spirits to other bodies."

The words repeated themselves in Anakin's mind a few times...

Moving souls or spirits to other bodies.

Moving souls _or spirits_ to other bodies.

He might be able to rid himself of Vader.

His interest now awakened on a wholly other level he urged the holocron to keep talking, wanting to know the secret of this ritual... It huffed at his impatience, but did so anyway, describing what needed to be done, in greater detail than Anakin had expected. And despite it also explaining how to actually rip out the souls of other people - something that sounded decidedly creepy and not at all like something he wanted to try - it was extremely valuable information...

Which was why it came a lot more surprising when just after the holocron had finished its explanations, leaving Anakin deep in thought about its contents, he was ripped away again, with Vader coming up to the front.

Immediately, his face distorted into an evil grin.

"Thanks for going through all that boring stuff for me to find the real treasure," Vader said, actually speaking up loudly for once as he focussed his gaze on the by now turned off holocron. "This will certainly ease up things for me."

 _'No!'_ Anakin protested from within, stemming against the other's hold. _'_ Vanish _finally you wretched spirit!'_

But of course, Vader didn't care, just stretching a little bit.

 _'Well, it's your own fault, really. Don't leave yourself so open, it's like an invitation for me,'_ he just answered easily, though using more force to keep Anakin down.

Oh how he _loathed_ this spirit...!

As he was still working on getting enough hatred together to somehow break through Vader's defences Vader himself already had put on his helmet again before moving out of his quarters to do who knew what. Anakin really didn't want to know, although he got a feeling if he wouldn't get back in control in time he would be forced to watch again anyway, something that made him even angrier.

But then, suddenly, Vader stopped. In the corridor just in front of the quarters stood Novar, staring at him in surprise.

"Is there something wro-" the doctor began, but at that moment Vader slammed him into the wall with the Force, raising his hand to start choking him.

 _'Stop it!'_ Anakin cried out, ramming against the mental barrier keeping him in place. _'Let him go!'_

"You will pay for that last stunt you pulled on me, _doctor_ ," Vader said derisively, although mentally he seemed to me almost gloating.

 _'I told you I will kill this man directly in front of your eyes one day. Slowly... choke him... to death...'_

After each he put a bit more pressure into the choke, whereas Novar's eyes had went wide as he tried to gasp for air around it, his hands at his throat as if to defend against the invisible force suffocating him.

Despair ran through Anakin as he had to helplessly watch this scene - until he realised that he was _not_ helpless. He had already pushed the spirit away more than once... He had to help Novar!

So while Vader was obviously enjoying both torturing Novar and Anakin, the latter made sure all of his despair turned into even more hatred. Hatred against being forced to watch, hatred against having to share his body with anyone, hatred against Vader's whole existence...

And finally, finally the barrier between them broke and in the resulting struggle Anakin managed to distract Vader enough to let go of the doctor, who fell to the floor, coughing, while Anakin and Vader fought a short but brutal battle inside of their head.

It was over as quickly as it had begun, and with a quiet groan Anakin managed to subdue the ghost, locking him away completely again for the moment.

He really was 'lucky' that Vader seemingly preferred letting him watch whatever he did, for it was a lot easier to escape when one knew what was going on... He really had to focus more on keeping Vader in the dark, damn it!

A moment later another short coughing fit reminded him that the doctor was still lying on the ground in front of him and he cursed mentally, before kneeling down beside him.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, not daring to speak any louder for fear of being overheard by anyone. "Can you walk?"

Novar nodded, before shaking his head and finally shrugging. As such, Anakin simply helped him up, supporting him a little as he was swaying for a moment, before leading him back to his quarters, where he could sit down. Anakin didn't know how it felt to be Force choked, but it couldn't be good, so after he had been sure Novar was sitting safely and the door was closed, he quickly pulled off his helmet again, looking at the doctor remorsefully - but this time definitely keeping part of his mind focussed on maintaining his mental barrier.

"Vader?" Novar asked before Anakin could open his mouth again, his voice sounding raspy but otherwise alright.

"Yes... I'm so sorry! I've been distracted, there was this holocron that could maybe provide a solution for all this, and then..." he broke off, unable to say the words that they both knew to be true, looking down at the floor in shame.

"Anakin..." the doctor said in his usual, calm way, even if his voice wasn't quite back to normal yet. Why couldn't he be angry for once, not even when it was deserved?! This ever-calm demeanour almost reminded him of- Anakin stopped the thought right there. No, he wouldn't go down that path again. Not now. "I know you didn't mean it... It must be unbelievably difficult to live with a second person in a body... Even more so when said person wants to see you suffering... It is _not_ your fault...!"

Anakin groaned slightly. Why did Novar always insist it wasn't his fault, despite it obviously being wrong?

"But it _is_! If I would've just been stronger, nothing of this would have happened!"

"You don't know that for sure!" Novar argued back, using the same arguments as always. "Besides, you saved me, didn't you? You _are_ strong enough to fight him back, so don't beat yourself up over not being able to focus all the time on keeping out an evil being that is not even supposed to be there." Anakin wanted to argue again, but Novar held up his hand. "Never mind, we both know this isn't going to go anywhere at the moment. How about you tell me what you found... before?"

So Anakin did, for he knew too that continuing to argue would help neither of them for all of their arguments had been used before, and together they devised another plan... One that might even free him from Vader forever...?

xxx

 **Rex**

What at first seemed like another ordinary day for CT-7567 - or Rex, as he preferred to be called - changed pretty quickly the moment Darth Vader's presence at Kamino's training facilities was announced.

After his resignation from the 501st Legion he had been reassigned to Kamino, where everything was about training the new clones they produced, something he had done gladly until they had switched from using Jango Fett's DNA to all kinds of other genetic templates. By now he couldn't help but agree with what Cody - who had been stationed to guard the facility, an even worse job than his - was thinking these days: The quality of the soldiers in the imperial army went down every day... And it didn't help that they were putting whole battalions of Fett clones to the most secluded planets they could find.

Still, even though both clones had managed to remove their control chips they had no way to openly rebel against anyone, for this would undoubtedly lead to their ends. As such, they were quiet for the moment, following orders like they were expected to, just waiting for the correct moment to strike...

And now Darth Vader had come here, an easy way to destroy all they had planned in a moment.

Clad in the same white armour everyone around here had to wear Rex stood perfectly in line as they all had been called to muster as the Sith Lord entered the room. He was talking quietly with Lama Su, the prime minister of Kamino and leader of the clone facility.

Rex didn't understand much, but it was probably about how the current status of the clones was, how the training went and so on.

"CT-7567, come here!" Lama Su suddenly called out, making Rex blink in surprise, but step forward nevertheless, walking over to where the Kaminoan and Darth Vader stood.

Saluting formally to the two of them, despite him being less than impressed by both he waited for his orders.

"Show Lord Vader around the facility. He has come for an examination, so be sure to properly explain everything," Lama Su said, his voice as silky as ever but with a faint promise of punishment should Darth Vader's visit go less than ideal.

Although of course, Rex wasn't even sure he would survive this tour, so he didn't bother with worrying much. The Sith Lord was known for his violent temper, which was probably the reason why Rex had been chosen for this task. These days Fett clones had lost a lot of their reputation, being seen as inferior and mostly being used as cannon fodder.

Still, he did as he had been ordered to, motioning for the visitor to follow him as he began explaining the facility in a monotone. There wasn't exactly a lot of interesting information to say, after all.

xxx

They had managed about half the facility when they entered a small walk-through room leading to another part of the facility. But before Rex could leave it again, the door in front of him slammed close, bringing him to a stop.

Uh-Oh.

The door behind them did the same and a moment later the only camera that had been in this room was ripped from the wall in a quick movement.

Rex swallowed once, before turning around, wanting to at least face his end with his head held high.

What he didn't expect though, was Darth Vader's next question.

"Rex? Is that you?"

He sounded almost _hesitant_.

"Sir?" Rex just replied, unable to completely keep out the confusion of his voice. What was the man getting at?

"I'll take that as a yes. Is there another camera in this room or some other recording device?"

Rex shook his head. Which was the point when Darth Vader took of his helmet, making Rex glad that he still wore his, for he couldn't help but stare. He had already seen a lot of things during his years as a soldier, but the Sith Lord taking off his helmet was a first, and he was looking... pretty rough underneath.

"Rex... I know it's pretty hard to believe, but it's me, Anakin Skywalker."

Rex stared for a moment longer. He did, in fact, know that General Skywalker had turned into Darth Vader at the end of the Clone Wars - one of the main reasons he had asked to get relocated - but he did not know what the man was trying to do right now and it bothered him to an extent.

"Sir, I must confess I don't know what you want to tell me," he finally said honestly. He had never been the type to fake knowledge he didn't have if it wasn't useful, so why start now?

The other actually sighed.

"Look... I'm not sure how much you know, but... I'm not Vader."

What followed was an explanation about spirits and possession so unbelievable that once the other was done, Rex had to stare for a few seconds more, before shaking his head.

"The crazy things always happen to you, don't they, General?" he said slowly, before taking off his own helmet, wanting to directly look General Skywalker into the eyes. He didn't know why - maybe because he didn't think Darth Vader capable of crafting such a story for any reason at all, or maybe because he did miss his General in a way - but he believed the other. And as brown eyes locked with blue, he somehow knew that this really was what had happened, finding the confirmation he needed in them.

Before he could say anything else though, Skywalker's eyes widened slightly, as if remembering something important.

"Right, the chip," he said, more to himself, before focussing on Rex again. "Uh... Did you know that you have a control chip in your brain?"

"Had," Rex corrected, him, hoping that this wasn't an elaborate trap, but seeing no sense in it, as there would have been easier ways to kill him. "I destroyed mine."

Skywalker stared, before breathing out a sigh in relief.

"Glad to hear you say that... These things are horrible, I'm already working on getting them out of my soldiers, but it's going slow, for I don't really have a lot of time without people growing suspicious."

Rex was glad to hear that his former general was still concerned about his troops, although he did wonder a bit why he was told that right now. He wasn't even part of the 501st Legion anymore.

"Are you happy here, Rex?" Skywalker asked a moment later, making him blink in surprise. It was an interesting question, although the answer was painfully clear.

"I do not mind the training," he said neutrally, evading a derogatory remark unfitting for a soldier.

"But you would prefer being free?" Skywalker guessed.

"I would not be averse to it." Although 'free' was a powerful word. He was a soldier to his bones, he couldn't imagine settling down somewhere with a family or anything. "Why are you asking?"

"Well... I've had an idea I could use your help wi-"

Suddenly, Skywalker froze, completely unmoving, making Rex narrow his eyes in suspicion and alarm. It was difficult to understand what was going on, but he quickly noticed something that made him shiver in discomfort.

Skywalker's eyes were changing. From blue to yellow and back to blue, a creepy play of colours...

And then it stopped, as quickly as it had begun, and Skywalker doubled over, gasping.

Without even consciously thinking about it, Rex was at his side, helping him to stay upright, worry showing on his face, for Skywalker's already sickly looking skin had gone even paler and he was shaking slightly.

"S-Sorry for that," he said, his voice equally unsteady for a moment before slowly returning to normal. "It's Vader. I can't fully restrain him... And his attacks are getting worse." He shook his head, as if to clear it before ceasing to support himself on Rex's shoulder. "I'm not sure how long I can keep fending him off, so I'm trying to get the legion free from him as soon as possible... Would you help me?"

"Of course," Rex agreed immediately. Despite everything he wanted to help his general and the idea of freeing the legion - of which he still caught himself thinking as 'his men' at times - did sound tempting. "What is the plan?"

xxx

 **Adye Prittick**

Admiral Adye Prittick was rather proud of his position as the Admiral of the _Exactor_ , Lord Darth Vader's personal flagship. But there were some days where he wished he hadn't taken up that job offer, especially when Lord Vader was angry.

Up to now he had been lucky enough to normally stay far away from the man when this happened, although he had been choked a few times already, mostly after he had failed an almost impossible task.

As such he was already wary when Lord Vader entered the bridge on this day, for he knew what the man was going to ask.

During the last week they had managed to acquire a brand new _Imperial I_ -class Star Destroyer with all the latest technological upgrades, so Lord Vader had wanted to make that his new flagship. In fact, he had already moved most of the troops and today should have been the day where Lord Vader himself moved ships. Of course, they still needed to switch the whole crew of the _Exactor_ with the intermediate crew on the other ship - which consisted almost completely of clones to test if the ship's controls and everything worked correctly, for if not, it wasn't so bad as it were just clones dying after all - but that could be done in a few hours at most.

The problem was that the Star Destroyer hadn't appeared yet. It should have been there, just a small hyperspace jump away as it had been docking on Kamino for the night to get the latest clone soldiers to it. Nobody really understood why Lord Vader was still using so many clones, but as nobody dared to ask this remained a mystery to them.

And now, Lord Vader was here, surely to ask about the ship again, growing impatient... He would probably begin to choke the first people soon...

The atmosphere was tense, with Lord Vader's mechanical breaths being the only sound in the silence...

Until suddenly a person came out of another room, almost shivering with fear as he walked towards the Dark Lord, something clasped tightly in his hands.

Adye tried not to be too obvious in his staring as he busied himself with checking the _Exactor's_ surroundings on a nearby terminal.

"Th-There was a voice message sent to you, L-Lord Vader..." the man said, even stammering slightly.

"From whom?" Lord Vader asked, his tone dangerously quiet as he held out a hand for the device that was promptly dropped into it.

"I d-don't know sir, we received it anonymously, b-but it's been sent with a description that it's for you."

That sounded bad... Really bad... The man was waved off and hurried away, making Adye wish he could join in. But he couldn't very well leave his post, so he stayed, staring transfixed at the screen in front of him now, hoping that the message would not be bad... Please...

"To Vader," the message began, the voice coming out of the recorder distorted beyond recognition, but understandable none the less. Adye cringed, as did many others he could see from his point of view, as basically everyone was listening in, probably having the same thoughts as he did.

 _'Please don't be a bad message.'_

Although after this start, his hopes were rapidly diminishing...

"I'm sure you are wondering by now where your Star Destroyer is," the unknown voice continued on. Oh no... "You know, the one you put all your troops on? Well, at the moment it should be on its way to the nearest sun. No communication and a slightly manipulated computer system do wonders at times..."

" _What?!_ " Lord Vader bellowed at that, making the whole crew wince. Though Adye couldn't help but wonder how in the stars that unknown person had managed to manipulate the computer system of a fully staffed Star Destroyer...! That should have been impossible!

What was worst, the message still wasn't finished.

"Don't worry though, you will soon follow your troops, I will make sure of that. Yes, this is a challenge, _Vader_." Even through the distortion one could hear the contempt for that name, making Adye shiver. If this person was confident enough to openly challenge Lord Vader, would they soon have a battle of two giants at hand...?

"Just know that _Vengeance_ will find you and you will get what you deserve..."

With that, the recording stopped, and there was utter silence in the room. One breath of Lord Vader followed. Then another.

And suddenly, all hell broke loose, as he began to let out a scream of rage, after which everything standing nearby was thrown back. People and objects alike flew through the room, some of them hitting other people who sprang up from their respective seats in terror. People were diving under the furniture in hopes to be safer there, but it seemed nothing was safe, for Lord Vader held out his hands, suffocating people left and right...

That was the point when even Adye lost his courage and dived down, cowering behind his terminal in hopes of not getting choked to death...

He was pretty sure the Emperor would be very interested in what was transpiring right now - if he survived that scene that was.

But as Lord Vader was rampaging there was at least one positive thing Adye realised: At least he hadn't been on the other Star Destroyer.

* * *

 _And the plot slowly begins to show... Although we are still at the beginning I'd say, close to the end of first act maybe? ;)_ _  
_

 _Thanks a lot for the nice reviews, I sure hope you like the direction the story is going to take... :)  
_


	8. Chapter 8

**Anakin Skywalker**

After months and months of planning, carefully executing those plans in secret afterwards and in general making sure Anakin had to bring up all the patience he had not to blow it, him and Novar had finally reached the day everything would decide.

They had improved his suit, had found a way to safely get the clones away from everything - for of course, they had _not_ been flown into a sun - while at the same time getting rid of everyone he knew to be a loyal puppet to Palpatine. For while he did injure quite some people, which was necessary to keep up the act for the Emperor, the only real deaths happened when Anakin knew those bastards were spies. Also, they had made sure that Novar had an 'accident with Vader' soon after that incident too, to disperse any suspicions and so that the doctor was free to move around, able to get the main objective of their plan: A medical clone of Anakin.

The idea had come to them after Anakin had discovered that he might be able to put his soul into another body. The doctor had quickly agreed with him that they could never do that to a sentient being - after all, he wouldn't be any better than Vader, then - and as such after a while they had decided on using a medical clone. As those had no conscience but were held physically fit by the cloners they would be the only real alternative they had, and as such when Novar had been visiting Kamino to order new medical clones, just shortly after they had agreed on that particular plan, he had added one with Anakin's DNA.

It had needed half a year to grow a clone that would not only be physically an adult but also stable enough to be able to do extreme physical exercises without falling apart... at least not very soon. The waiting had been the worst for Anakin though to be honest, especially those last months, after everything else had been planned out. For he never knew when Vader planned another assault - interrupting him in all kinds of things in the most different times as he tried to fight his way back into control - and in general had not much to do but hope that everything would work out...

But finally it was time. The day they would meet up again on Molavar, a small desert planet that seemed to be even worse of than Tatooine despite lying at the end of a big intergalactic trade route. Which made it perfect to conduct their plan there, so after making sure people on the ship found signs of a Jedi down there - it wasn't even that unrealistic to hide on a backwater planet like that - Anakin was free to go down in "pursuit", going alone as always.

xxx

After landing, he made his way to a small, empty factory building Novar had found earlier when looking for a fitting place, just before his 'death', and once inside Anakin quickly found the doctor, who had brought the clone body on a hovering stretcher from the small ship Anakin had managed to buy in secret to be able to use it with Novar to flee.

Well, or maybe Novar had to use it alone, after all this ripping out one's soul _could_ go terribly wrong, but he was trying not to think about that possibility.

"Are you ready?" Novar asked, making Anakin grimace under his mask.

"As ready as I can be," he answered. There would be no turning back now, everything was ready... he would manage! "What about you?"

"Everything has been prepared. The ship is waiting a little away, ready to take off immediately."

Anakin nodded, before finally looking at the clone lying on the stretcher, trying not to shiver at the sight. It was truly creepy to look at himself from the outside, but at least the body definitely did look like he had when being around twenty... The only thing really missing was the scar he had had in his face, for obvious reasons. Not bad.

"Did they do a good job?" Novar asked, a hint of curiosity in his voice. And true enough, while the name 'Anakin Skywalker' had been rather well-known - at least from what Novar had told him, Anakin himself had never really realised it to be honest - his face wasn't quite as well-known.

"Yes," Anakin just answered, looking away. It was... not natural to see yourself like that. Also, he feared that if he would get too emotional now Vader might take over. Something he had tried far too often to Anakin's liking these last months, knowing that time was running out for them now.

"Alright. So... Let's do it as planned, I will wait for you at the ship," Novar said after another moment of silence, although it was obvious that he would have preferred to stay here. But if things went wrong for some reason and Vader would show up he needed to get away as quickly as possible...

Also, Anakin had to confess that he wanted to do this alone. Needed to do this alone.

He had managed to get into this mess by himself and he wanted to make sure he could get out of it too, even if this might have been ridiculous.

"Good luck and... May the Force be with you."

Anakin blinked in surprise at hearing the familiar words spoken by someone who probably did not even have a connection to it, but he couldn't help but smile a little.

"Thanks. I'll see you soon," he responded, for there was no way this wouldn't work... he would make it work, somehow!

Watching the back of the retreating doctor, Anakin did his best to focus on his task, reminding himself again and again that he _would_ manage.

He had studied the holocron a few times more, pestered the guy, Set Harth, with questions as to how the details of this ritual worked... He was as prepared as possible he surmised.

So he positioned himself next to the clone and took a few more deep, calming breaths before putting his hand on his chest, focussing all of his power, the Force inside and around him to it, and _pulled_.

Agonising pain went through him as his soul left his body, something even he had never experienced before and he screamed in the last moment he was connected with his body, before everything turned black.

xxx

 **Darth Sidious**

The Emperor had just been brooding over his newest scheme regarding the use of the soon-to-be finished Death Star when he felt a great disturbance in the force.

He stood up abruptly, surprised and maybe even a little bit shocked as he understood what it meant.

Darth Vader had fallen.

He had no idea how this could have happened, for the last report had been that he would soon be engaging this wonderfully amusing Jedi, the one that called himself 'Vengeance' and had managed to bring Lord Vader into a rage he hadn't displayed in a long time. Lord Vader should have had enough anger present to rip this Jedi into a thousand pieces!

But alas, it looked like there had been some unforeseen circumstances. Sidious would have to delve into the Chaos later himself to go and ask how this might have happened, for Force spirits normally returned there after their deaths, their second souls - the original owners of the bodies - pulling them back to the Force when they died.

For now though he would have to make sure that _nobody_ knew. He could easily put another person in a black suit, but the prestige loss through making Lord Vader's death public would not do the Empire any good. No...

He summoned his holoprojector and called the _Exactor_.

Almost immediately a small Hologram sprang up, of Admiral Prittick, kneeling on the ground already.

"Your highness! To what do we owe this call?" he asked devotedly. A pathetic man, but a passable spy at least...

"I have new orders for you and your crew. Return to Coruscant immediately," he said, his voice commanding.

The admiral looked surprised for a moment.

"Of course, but... Lord Vader is still on the planet's sur-"

"I said, return _immediately_ ," Sidious interrupted, making the admiral wince. "I will take care of Lord Vader myself."

"Y-Yes, sir!" Admiral Prittick only said, visibly shaken, before Sidious ended the connection. He didn't care about that fool, he had to find out what had happened.

So he turned off his holoprojector and everything else that might bother him now before sitting down on his throne-like chair and closed his eyes, beginning to meditate. Once he reached the Chaos he would have clarity, of that he was sure...

And then he would find Darth Vader's killer and turn him into his new apprentice...

xxx

 **Obi-Wan Kenobi**

Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi had been in deep meditation when the disturbance of the Force splashed over him, even stronger than usual for he was so connected to it at the moment.

He immediately withdrew, his eyes wide and his breath quickening as he began to realise what kind of presence this had been. He had felt it before after all, as it had changed from what he had became used to to _this_...

Anakin had died.

Obi-Wan couldn't quite think of a situation where this might have happened, if the Emperor had finally grown tired with his toy or if there had actually been a Jedi that had managed to defeat the Sith Lord.

He knew this was supposed to be a happy moment, for without the presence of Darth Vader the Empire would weaken and the Jedi would be a lot safer now than ever, but... he couldn't help but also feel incredibly sad. So Anakin hadn't been able to find back to the light after all... He had stayed true to the Dark Side until the end...

With a sigh Obi-Wan stood up. Despite the pain he still felt when thinking about his once almost brother he knew that he needed to keep focussed now. The death of Darth Vader had changed a lot of things, including the dire need to stay hidden...

Of course, it would be a very bad idea to openly show himself, but maybe with Vader gone they could start training Luke or Leia...?

But he couldn't to decide this alone, so he stood up and began to pack a few things together. He needed to travel to Dagobah and pay Master Yoda a visit. He must have felt the tremor in the Force too and would surely know what they could do, and although it was a little risky to leave Luke alone on the planet for a while Obi-Wan knew that it was his best bet. With Anakin dead the Emperor would need a while to find a new person to hunt the Jedi and even then Luke's Force signature was still very weak... As long as he stayed on Tatooine he should be fine. He could still be trained once Obi-Wan came back from Dagobah after all, maybe they could even join the rebellion together?

And then he would find Darth Vader's killer and see if there was a chance to negotiate an alliance...

* * *

 _A shorter chapter again, and even one with such an evil cliffhanger, I apologize.  
Of course, it is not yet the end of all days, so stay tuned, the next (a bit longer again) chapter will follow soon!_

 _Thanks a lot for the reviews!  
(bugaboo13, your __comment made me laugh, thanks for that! :) And it was even true, in a way, those strange plans usually come from Anakin I'd say  
and Storylover2036, I hope your confusion cleared up a little now?) **  
**_


	9. Chapter 9

_Small warning: Another short fighting scene in this chapter. Nothing too bad though.  
_

* * *

 **Anakin Skywalker**

The darkness that surrounded him was everywhere and Anakin didn't know how long he had already been here... It felt almost similar to when he was trapped within his own mind, when Vader shut him out, but at the same time it had a taste of freedom and peace to it Anakin couldn't really describe...

After a while though the darkness finally began to lighten up, everything began to brighten, and while he could still not really see anything he felt... surrounded by something. Like a warm cloak on a cold night, a hug from a parent to keep dark thoughts at bay... It was immensely calming and it was almost too easy to accept the fact that he wasn't really able to move, for somehow he had no physical body at the moment...

Which was when he heard the voice, calm, but purposeful.

"Anakin."

His senses grew aware of another being nearby... At first, he barely managed to concentrate enough to even really hear it, but it kept calling his name until the voice finally registered with him.

"Master Qui-Gon...?" he asked, and although he had no mouth it came out perfectly clear... His voice sounded a lot better than he had become used to, too...

But he was much busier with concentrating on that voice now, for he was _sure_ it belonged to his old master...

"Anakin... Pull yourself together... Don't let the Force take you, it's not yet time for you to join it..."

The words were confusing, made almost no sense to his rather clouded mind... It was so nice here...

"If you stay here, you will die..." the voice that sounded so much like Qui-Gon's said, and slowly Anakin realised that he actually wasn't even supposed to _be_ here... Wherever 'here' was.

"Master, what's going on?" he asked, confusedly, not even understanding how he was able to speak to Qui-Gon at all... Had he died? But he had just been told he would die if he would be staying here...

"Concentrate, Anakin. Remember who you are and what you were doing before..."

Well... He was Anakin Skywalker, son of Shmi Skywalker... and... what had he been doing again...?

There had been desert... and... Vader!

Somehow the mere thought of Vader shook him up and suddenly the whiteness began to clear, almost like fog, and he was back in the empty factory on Molavar.

Well, almost back. He still felt very much bodiless... In fact, he could actually see his body from the outside, collapsed next to the clone body on the stretcher... Damn, _that_ was creepy.

"That's better," the other voice commented, but as Anakin looked into the direction from where it came it wasn't bodiless anymore. In fact, he could see Qui-Gon standing there rather clearly, looking just the way Anakin remembered him, even though he had something that made him seem not quite real... A little translucent, even.

Still, he was _there_ , and Anakin couldn't help but feel astonished...

"Master Qui-Gon... What's happening...?" he asked once again.

"Well, you decided it was a good idea to rip out your own soul if I recall correctly," the Jedi Master answered dryly.

Right... In hindsight probably not his best idea...

"But... I'm not dead yet...?"

"No," Qui-Gon affirmed. "You can still return to the land of the living for the time being... The Force is holding you only lightly now, there is still time."

Anakin looked down at the scene, conflicting feelings coursing through him. Did he even want to go back? He knew that in going back he would be in even worse pain than before, Harth had explained that much in his holocron. And to be honest, what did he have to live for...? It was so nice here...

"You are doubtful of going back," Qui-Gon stated, as if knowing just what Anakin had been thinking.

"Well... What use does it have? There is the idea of a rebellion in the air, people will manage to overthrow Palpatine without me..."

His master hummed thoughtfully, crossing his arms meanwhile.

"I do not think the Force wants you dead just now... I still believe that you are the Chose One, you know? You are special Anakin..."

Anakin snorted.

"Yeah, especially talented to kill those who are dear to me," he said bitterly. "So you say I'm supposed to go back to keep failing?"

"No, I am saying that not everything is as dark as you think. I know you think you are lost to the light, but if that would be true, how come you are even worrying so much about the people you love?"

Frowning, Anakin shook his head, not even noticing the fact that slowly a body for him faded into existence, making these things possible in the first place.

"That's not it... I'm just... What use would it have for me to return?"

"Well, for one, there are people who would be delighted to have you back, you know...?" Qui-Gon said softly, making Anakin frown.

"And who would _that_ be? Last I checked everyone hated me - and they had every right for that, too! I should never have given in to Vader damn it...!"

"Not everything is lost yet," the Jedi Master insisted. "Trust in the Living Force and it shall guide you to find what you so desperately seek..."

Sighing, Anakin looked at his former master.

"You won't let me stay here, will you?"

Qui-Gon shook his head.

"It's not about what I want, it's about what you need. And if you really, honestly want to stay here you can, but I believe that there are people out there you don't want to leave behind..."

Anakin frowned a little. Sure, he would feel bad for Novar, but the man was prepared for it to go awry and as the Empire thought he was dead there should be no problems... But Qui-Gon had said 'people', so plural... Was there actually someone he wanted to see again?

Suddenly, he remembered that girl. Leia Organa, the one person that had started everything as she looked so much like Padmé it was crazy. He _had_ always wanted to meet her once he was free from Palpatine's clutches and... this would happen just now. He just had to go back...

He looked at Qui-Gon, suddenly feeling horribly insecure.

"Do you... think I'll manage? If I'm just going to ruin everything again I'd rather stay here I think..."

At that, the Jedi Master smiled.

"Anakin, you were one of the most promising students I ever saw and despite anything I strongly believe that you can live up to everyone's expectations if you only believe in yourself. Just let the Force guide you."

It seemed that the old man had a lot more trust in Anakin than he had himself, but it was comforting to hear...

So with newfound determination he nodded, turning to the clone body, walking towards it, somehow knowing that he had to basically slip inside it to fully wake up again. But just before he did he turned around once more, looking at the other.

"Thank you, Master Qui-Gon. For everything."

Qui-Gon's smile widened and as Anakin slipped into the body he barely heard the next words of him.

"I believe in you... Just remember that you want redemption, not revenge..."

And then, before Anakin even had a chance to really process what had just been said, his view faded into black once again as a few last words reached him.

"May the Force be with you..."

xxx

 **Darth Vader**

Darth Vader awoke through a scream. Disoriented, he stared at the ceiling for a moment, for he wasn't quite sure what was going on. He definitely wasn't the one screaming - and why was he lying on the ground anyway?

He sat up slowly, blinking a few times to clear his head. And only then it slowly dawned on him that there was something very weird going on...

Anakin was gone.

 _'Midget? Where are you hiding now?'_ he tried to communicate, but it didn't seem to get to anywhere... The boy had truly managed to separate them? And Vader himself was still trapped in this horrible tin can of a body?!

Anger flowed through him as he quickly stood up, only to finally see the source of the scream that had awoken him. On the stretcher lay a young Anakin Skywalker, in his twenties again, his pain-filled face soon changing into one of shock as he seemed to register Vader.

Who pulled out his lightsaber - stupid boy to not even have though of removing that! - and with a scream of rage slashed downwards, hoping to cut the little bastard clean in a half.

Sadly, Anakin seemingly had other ideas as he rolled from the stretcher only a moment before the lightsaber neatly cut it in half. Which was not nearly as satisfying, although he could at least hope that the thump meant falling to the floor had hurt.

Waving his hand to get the stretcher out of the way Vader encountered a worse problem though.

The stretcher didn't move.

His eyes widened in realisation and horror as he realised, belatedly, that the Force wasn't answering him. He could still move normally, thanks to the improved prostheses, but the Force was... gone...

That was why he had always kept the spirit of the Jedi alive after all... As a Force spirit he needed a Force sensitive being already in the body to be able to connect to it, for his own connection to the Force had been severed in the ritual that made him a Force spirit in the first place... But with Anakin gone the body was just a shell, almost like an object...

Cursing internally as his rage increased even more he kicked half of the table into Anakin's direction, who had begun to scramble backwards, away from Vader, the second he had landed on the ground.

Anakin caught it with the Force - making Vader's hatred stronger than ever - and threw it back, causing Vader to violently slash it with his lightsaber - for at least that was a skill he didn't need the Force for.

"Don't think you can escape me," he growled as he began advancing towards Anakin, hoping the boy wouldn't notice the absence of Force usage in his fear. For it was obvious that the boy was afraid of him. If there hadn't been his obvious lack of Force sensitivity right now Vader might have gloated more, but like that he just wanted to put an end to it quickly, advancing closer as Anakin still crawled backwards awkwardly, a sign he had not yet full control over his body. Which was something Vader intended to use.

Sadly, Anakin's control over the force was as strong as ever, so as the boy retreated Vader had to slice through quite a few chunks of metal and machinery Anakin was throwing at him from the factory room. But it wasn't difficult enough, so soon he had the boy backed into a corner.

Not wanting to risk it by saying anything he raised his lightsaber, ready to cut the other down-

Only to note that his hand stopped moving half the way through the strike, stopped just inches over Anakin's skin.

No! It couldn't be! The midget had used the Force to stop _him_!

Vader glared at Anakin, even though it was invisible through his helmet, while Anakin looked up in surprise.

They stared at each other for a second, before Anakin seemingly understood and, with a powerful Force push, threw Vader through half of the hall, making him crash into some other machinery.

Pain shot through his body as the force of the crash pressed his life support unit uncomfortably strong against his chest while the air had been pressed out of his lungs.

Gasping for oxygen he noticed that he had been forced to drop his lightsaber in the process, but as he tried to get to it another wave of Force pressure caught him, pushing him against the nearby wall, no matter his struggle.

Anakin looked rather disbelieving, but he was slowly getting up, making his way over to him with careful steps, as Vader was forced to watch. Without being able to control the Force himself he couldn't fight the hold at all, just stare in growing horror as Anakin now closed in on him, summoning the lightsaber from the ground into his hands before coming to a halt in front of him, turning the weapon on.

"I will just get stronger if you kill me now," Vader growled, knowing that his was what Anakin wanted to do, but also knowing that he couldn't be killed like that... he hoped.

He had never been killed in a body that did not originally host a soul that would return to the Force at its death, making sure Vader's own spirit was able to return too...

But Anakin paid his words no heed it seemed, just staring at him, his face emotionless.

"Rot in Chaos," he said, quietly, although his words were laced with contempt.

But Darth Vader had no time to ponder this any longer, for at that moment Anakin raised the lightsaber and swung it, effectively beheading the Sith Lord, marking the end... of...

xxx

 **Anakin Skywalker**

As Vader's body crumbled to the floor, Anakin let go of the lightsaber and dropped down beside it, feeling relieved and horrified at the same time. Relieved, for Vader was finally dead, it was finally over, the constant worrying about holding him back had vanished... But horrified because it reminded him too much of Count Dooku's death, which was now trying to come back to him in form of rather violent flashbacks...

Also, there had been something very strange going on, Vader hadn't even tried to fight back with the Force and even when dying it hadn't felt like a powerful Force user dying, rather than a normal human being... And even then the death had felt... wrong, as if something hadn't exactly worked the way it was supposed to, but he couldn't explain it...

The flashbacks were distracting him though, for despite getting his revenge against the Sith it hadn't felt like a real victory... Just like with Count Dooku. He had been so angry before, but now he was mostly feeling... empty. Everything was so confusing... What was he doing...?

xxx

"...nakin... Anakin...!"

Anakin blinked a few times as he registered a sharp pain on his cheek, bringing him back to reality.

"Huh?" he asked, totally confused as he noticed that he wasn't alone anymore. Instead, Novar knelt in front of him, sighing deeply.

"Finally..." he said, shaking his head. "I thought I'd have to just take you with me like that."

"Uh... Where did you come from?" Anakin asked, frowning slightly.

"Well, I don't know what happened in here but even I could hear your screams and the sound of fighting and I was already pretty close to flying away but when nobody came out of the factory for at least thirty minutes I thought it would be safe to check."

"I... what? Thirty minutes?"

"Yeah... That was when I grew impatient and came checking only to find you sitting like this... What's wrong?"

Anakin grimaced.

"It's just... It was too easy. Almost as if he let me kill him and I don't understand his motives..."

It wasn't all of course, and judging from Novar's expression he knew it too, but thankfully he didn't enquire further.

"But he _is_ dead, right?"

Anakin nodded, making Novar sigh in what might have been relief.

"Good... Then at least that's taken care of."

Anakin nodded again.

"Yeah... Let's get out of here."

"Right, there is just one more thing left." When just receiving a confused frown, Novar explained further. "Remember the prostheses? We need to destroy them."

"Right, I almost forgot... Sorry."

They had decided beforehand to destroy the old body if possible. There must have been a reason Vader had never tried to improve his suit after all and there was a chance Palpatine would get suspicious if he ever saw the changes...

So the plan was to just burn the body, melting the life-support unit and prostheses into an unrecognisable pile of junk in the process. The only real thing left would be Vader's lightsaber. Anakin wanted nothing to do with his hateful weapon anymore, he'd create one of his own. He _did_ have experience with that after all as he had been prone to loose or destroy his weapons for a while.

When Anakin stood up though he felt the awkwardness of the body again. It had been mostly subdued due to adrenaline before, but he had already noticed that he wasn't quite feeling... right. He tried flexing his right hand as he raised it, and while it did move the way he wanted it to it was... weird. A bit slower than he was used to, he guessed. But it was _so_ weird anyway, to see an actual hand moving there. No prosthesis, hidden behind a thick glove...

Damn, he hadn't felt that hand for about twenty years now!

"Anakin?" Novar asked, making him look up.

"Uh, sorry, I spaced out."

"No problem, I just wanted to let you know that I'll go and get our fire accelerant."

"Yeah, sure..."

As Novar left the hall Anakin stepped away from what was left of Vader, noticing how he had to focus on actually walking normally. It was strange... Everything was just getting too much right now...

He tried to calm himself with deep breaths as he waited for Novar to return... Which was when he remembered the other plan he had thought of. Quickly grabbing into one of the pockets of Vader's suit he pulled out a small recording device and a voice distorter, the only things he had brought with him except for the lightsaber - although _that_ had been a really stupid idea in hindsight.

Taking another few deep breaths he made sure the distorter would filter all of his real voice out before turning on the recording device.

"I told him he would be next. And he won't be the last. _Vengeance_ will come to those who deserve it."

With that he stopped the recording again and took the datadisk out of the recorder, trying to ignore the difficulties he had with grasping it. The message wasn't much, but it should be enough - and he didn't think he would manage much more in such a threatening tone in his current mindset anyway.

Just as he put the devices into the pocket of the trousers he was wearing - a good thing that the clone body at least wore basic clothing, really - Novar returned, carrying the fire accelerant.

Before they could put it all over the corpse though Anakin used the Force to summon the hated lightsaber to him again, knowing it would not do them any good if the weapon would be burned beyond recognition too. Palpatine needed to _know_ that this was in fact Vader even before checking the corpse. And what better proof then his lightsaber, put just a little distance away, together with the datadisk. Safe from the fire but clearly visible.

A nod to Novar made the doctor pour the combustible fluid over the corpse and a moment later the whole room was bathed in the orange light of fire...

As Anakin starred into the flickering flames and watched his worst enemy for seventeen years slowly turn into ashes old, long forgotten memories came back to him.

Master Qui-Gon's funeral had held the same flames as his body had burnt to ashes...

"I will make you proud, Master," he whispered, almost inaudible through the crackling of the fire, before turning on the spot and walking out of the factory to the ship they had prepared for their escape. He didn't look back once.

Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith, was no more, while Anakin Skywalker had returned, ready to bear whatever consequences his earlier choices had brought him. And this time around he would do it right.

* * *

 _Alright, this chapter needed a little more time than I had intended because I kind of accidentally decided to change a big part of the future plot, having to completely rethink some of the major plot points I had planned. Ahem. Sorry for the delay!  
I hope the content has been worth the wait, for finally, we have Anakin back where he belongs... kinda. ;)  
_

 _Thank you all so much for the reviews!  
(Logged Out, I'm not one hundred percent sure I got all of it, but I thought the randomness of your review was very refreshing. :) And thanks a lot for the compliment, I hope you will keep liking it!)  
_


	10. Chapter 10

**Anakin Skywalker**

The time they spent on their small ship in hyperspace after leaving Molavar behind Anakin mostly used for thinking. He knew he had promised Qui-Gon to make him proud and he wanted to do it by listening to what he had told him earlier.

He would try seeking redemption, not revenge.

Not that he really knew what to make of this, but for the time being he was content with thinking about what he could do to redeem himself. He knew Vader had committed atrocities that were considered irredeemable, but he wasn't Vader. He hadn't managed to stop him, but he had also never wanted any of this... So maybe there was still a chance to somehow make everything better again...

"Look, I think we'll be there soon," Novar suddenly said, breaking through Anakin's thoughts and leaving him blink in confusion for a moment before he focussed back on reality.

Quickly checking the systems - for of course he was the pilot, he wouldn't give that up for anything, even if his body wasn't yet one hundred percent responsive - he nodded.

"You're right. We should soon be approaching Lannik. Did you already tell Rex we're coming?"

"No, I thought you might like to do that."

Anakin nodded at that.

After meeting Rex on Kamino they hadn't really been able to talk again, but Anakin had told one of the clones that had been on the vanishing ship to please tell Rex to meet up with him on Lannik, as the planet was known to be mostly neutral and isolated from the Empire. He had given a timeframe in hopes of Rex vanishing if he wasn't there by that time as this might mean Vader had won or he had died, but both of these things hadn't happened and as he was still inside that frame it should work.

He just wanted to tell Rex the full truth after all before they parted ways, for his friend shouldn't be left in the dark.

So once they had left hyperspace he turned on the communication of the ship, setting up the frequency they had chosen to communicate on.

"Rex, can you hear me?" he asked into the microphone as he turned the ship a little to close in on Lannik.

"Who's there? Identify yourself," Rex's voice answered after a moment, making Anakin smile almost involuntarily. It was surprisingly good to hear the other's voice again, for it seemed that everything had worked out.

"It's me, Anakin," he said, not giving away more information for the name 'Skywalker' would probably draw too much attention to them for the moment should someone listen in... "We've almost reached Lannik now, I expect us to land soon."

"Alright, sir. Let's meet up at the discussed location."

"Yes, see you there."

With that, they ended their communication and Anakin turned their ship downwards to fly into the planet's orbit, trying to ignore his nervousness as they closed in on their meeting place...

xxx

Way too soon Anakin landed them softly on the ground, next to the empty storehouse they had decided to meet in.

Together with Novar he quickly left the ship then, entering the building, just to stop and stare the second he stepped inside, even making Novar bump into him, though he didn't really notice.

The room was _filled_ with people. And not just any people, the stormtrooper armour and the identical faces where an obvious hint.

At lest one hundred men from the 501st legion had assembled here - and they were staring at him too.

But he was much too busy wondering what they were even doing here to fully grasp their confusion... At least until he could hear Rex's voice calling out.

"Attention!"

At once, the military training of the clones seemed to kick in and they straightened, moving into formation.

Anakin needed a few more seconds to collect himself, before shaking his head.

"Dismissed," he muttered, letting the clones do whatever they wanted, before walking over to Rex. "What's going on here? I thought... Wasn't this supposed to be a meeting just with you?"

Rex looked at him, his expression unreadable.

"Well, I didn't force anyone to be here."

"But why...?"

"We want to help you," Rex said, sounding as if he thought this was obvious.

Anakin frowned.

"You don't even know what I want to do."

"You could tell us."

Anakin groaned. He didn't even really know for himself, how should he explain that to Rex and the others?!

"General, we both know that you won't just sit around and start growing flowers tomorrow," Rex continued, making Anakin wish the man didn't know him that well.

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean you have to join me! It's my fight, and you're free now," Anakin argued, looking over to the other clones. "You don't have to fight anymore or do anything a higher up orders you to... You can do anything you want!"

"With all due respect sir," one of the clones nearby said, sounding a little nervous, but resolute. "We _want_ to fight. It is what we were made for and what we are proud to do."

"There is no bigger honour than to fight under your command again, general," another clone added, making Anakin stare.

"But... All those atrocities you had to commit under Vader..." Anakin tried again, trailing off as he didn't know how to continue. He had witnessed too many things Vader had made the clones do... It had been horrible!

"Sir, but you were the one who freed us from the control chips we didn't even know we had. You helped us realising that we had a choice, and as such, we made this choice," the first clone answered calmly.

Anakin blinked a few times in astonishment. This was... not what he had expected, to be honest. But that didn't mean he didn't appreciate it of course. Quite the contrary, he was touched that they actually seemed to be that loyal... He didn't think he deserved their loyalty after all he had done, but it was obvious that they had chosen to give it to him, and he couldn't very well force them to change their opinion...

"Thank you..." he said as such, hoping to somehow convey his feelings over those words. "That means a lot to me."

A moment of silence reigned between them all, before Rex spoke up again.

"So, how about you tell us how you managed to look that young again, general?"

Anakin sighed. Oh well, there went his plan to only tell Rex about it. This wouldn't work at all, he could as well just tell anyone around here.

"That's kind of a long story..."

xxx

 **Leia Organa**

Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan was feeling rather conflicted as she sat next to her father in the small meeting room in Corellia the Alliance to Restore the Republic had acclaimed for their secret meetings today.

They were currently discussing a rather unbelievable topic: There was a rumour going around that Darth Vader had died. A moisture farmer on Molavar claimed to have seen smoke coming from an old factory building near his farm and, when investigating, had found a burning corpse wearing a suit that was looking suspiciously like Vader's. He had claimed to also see a mask and even a lightsaber as well as a datadisk with a message, but when he had returned with more people the factory building had been gone.

He was swearing black and blue that the corpse had been _just there_ , but there was simply no proof to it.

Still, the meeting of the Alliance today had used this as their first point of discussion, for if Vader really _was_ dead it would mean that they could operate a lot more open and maybe do some riskier operations...

Which was when a sharp knock on the door of the meeting room was heard, making everyone turn to it as Garm Bel Iblis - today's leader of the meeting as Corellia was 'his' planet - called the person in.

A man Leia didn't know entered, but Bel Iblis seemed to, for he was frowning a little.

"What's wrong?"

"It was just reported that Darth Vader was seen on Coruscant, sir!" the man said, sounding rather breathless. He must have hurried to get here.

Immediately the part of the group that had been in favour of the theory that Vader was dead sprang up.

"I can't believe this," one of them said. "It must be a ruse, some guy they put into the suit to cover up Vader's death!"

"Who says that the moisture farmer didn't see a duplicate then? If he even saw anything at all," another man argued and quickly the whole room was filled with discussion until Bel Iblis raised his voice.

"Silence!"

As the people slowly calmed down Leia leaned back a little in her chair. She hadn't been convinced of Lord Vader's death in the first place so she wasn't very surprised, although she did agree that a dead Vader would have made a much better advertisement for the Alliance. But there was nothing to be done and Bel Iblis seemed to understand so too, for he was now quickly changing the topic.

"Alright, since this rumour was now verified to be false - and all of you can have as many conspiracy theories as you'd like but without proof we as a whole will stick to the facts - I'd suggest going to the next point on today's agenda. The figure of Vengeance."

Immediately murmurs rose up again, but a stern look from the Corellian made them quiet down quickly again.

"So... What we _know_ about this person thanks to our spies is that they left a message for Darth Vader, taunting him and telling him that a whole Star Destroyer full of his soldiers was annihilated. Also, although their voice was distorted our informant was relatively sure that they must be a male person and that they spoke with a Coruscanti accent. And if they managed to manipulate a Star Destroyer they must either be technically adept or know someone who is. Same with the fact that they were able to get to the ship itself. Either they were - or still are - in the Empire themselves or they know someone who is."

Leia sighed mentally. There were hundreds of billions of Coruscanti men out there, even if one counted out children and species that could not speak basic... And who knew how many of those were in the Empire or had friends who were. This just wasn't enough information to properly limit the number of suspects to _anything_...

Not that this prevented people from speculating.

"Maybe they're a Jedi looking for revenge?" one proposed.

"A Jedi? Are you crazy? Even if there are still Jedi around Darth Vader would kill them before they could pull off something like that... It couldn't have been."

"Maybe it was one of the soldiers on the Star Destroyer themselves? Maybe he wasn't as loyal to the Empire as they thought?"

"What if it was Lord Vader himself?" one asked, making more than one other person looking at him strangely. "What? Maybe he just faked their vanishing to have a private fleet away from the Emperor's reach?"

"Yeah, sure, because Vader and the Emperor hate each other's guts... This is even more unrealistic than the theory that Vader was killed in itself!"

And the discussions continued on for a while, with Leia just sitting there, trying to listen but not really believing any of this. There just wasn't _proof_ for any of those theories. Maybe 'Vengeance' was even just the name of a group of people not unlike the Alliance? Nobody could say for sure...

"Alright, that's enough!" Bel Iblis just called out, silencing the others. "So nobody actually knows anything... But I think we can agree on the fact that this Vengeance, no matter if it's one person or a group of people, would be a valuable asset for our cause, right?" A lot of people muttered their agreements. "Good. Then I would suggest to keep your eyes and ears open. Some of you visit Coruscant at times, so you can try to see if anything suspicious happens there. The others can still watch out for it's not even sure if Vengeance would do anything there or if they might focus their attention on other targets now... Who's in favour of this?"

Almost all hands were raised, Leia's included. This was the only sensible thing in her opinion, trying to find out more about this mysterious person. They could still try to convince them to join forces with the Alliance later if they kept on doing things that worked together with their goals.

"Very well," Ben Iblis continued. "Then let's come to the third and last point on today's agenda. Bail Organa wanted to make an announcement."

Leia blinked in surprise, looking at her father. He did? He certainly hadn't said anything to her.

But it seemed so, for he was getting up from his seat, looking seriously around the room.

"Thank you, Garm. Now, what I have to say is just a small announcement. I haven't made it public yet so please keep it a secret for the time being but I thought you might want to know: I will step back from my post as senator of Alderaan."

A series of "What?" and "Why?" chorused through the room and Leia couldn't help but agree with them. Her father wanted to step down? Why was she only hearing of this now?!

Bail held up his hands as he kept talking. "Now, there is a series of reasons, but the most important is that I want to give all I can for the Alliance and I feel that I cannot do that while at the same time being a good senator. So I decided to step down at the beginning of the next year."

"But who will replace you?" a voice from the back called out, making Bail turn to Leia, whose eyes widened a little as she realised what he was about to say.

"If she is fine with it I would give my seat over to my daughter, Leia Organa. I believe she is well-suited for the job and has been present in various senate meetings over the last two years already anyway." Locking eyes with her, he now spoke to her directly. "Do you think yourself up for this task? You do not have to accept, for I am sure other suitable candidates could be found too."

Leia shook her head before raising out of her chair too, for the first time during this meeting.

"This is not necessary," she answered, trying to make her voice sound as steady and strong as possible. "I accept."

Polite applause rang through the room as her father gave her a small smile, while she just tried to convey that they definitely had to talk about this afterwards!

Even as they sat back down again to let Bel Iblis finish their meeting Leia kept thinking about this announcement. It would mean quite a change of responsibilities for her and she could only hope that she was ready for that... But she would do her best to represent her planet while her father worked for a better life for the whole galaxy... And one day they _would_ manage to bring the Empire down, she was sure of it!

xxx

 **Anakin Skywalker**

Anakin woke up with a start, shooting upright and breathing heavily as he looked around in confusion at his surroundings. Only after a few seconds he realised how he was lying in the captain's suite of the _Vengeance_ \- the Star Destroyer that was currently posing as his base, thanks to those crazily loyal clone troopers. Unlike he had first thought it hadn't been 'only' the hundred clone soldiers on Lannik that had decided to join him. In fact, almost _all_ of them had wanted to stay, to the extent that they had offered him the Star Destroyer back. He hadn't wanted to take it at first, but he also hadn't known how to decline, so here he was... And the clones had even voted for the name!

Right now Anakin paid no thought to any of that though, for he had just had another rather vivid series of dreams.

At first he had been overjoyed of the fact that he could sleep again without fear of being overtaken by anyone... But then the nightmares had started. He dreamt of all kinds of things, ranging from memories of Vader's killing done in the Jedi temple to possible ways of him returning. Sometimes he dreamt of good memories too, but even those left a bitter taste in his mouth when he awoke to find that all of this had long since passed...

Today it had been different though, in a way. Ever since they had boarded the _Vengeance_ a week ago Anakin had been thinking about what to do now. He knew he wanted to honour Qui-Gon's wish but he didn't know _how_ and no matter how much he tried to meditate it didn't bring him any closer to a solution.

But maybe he had been to impatient once again... This night he had had a small series of dreams from when he was still a child, back when Qui-Gon had taken him from Tatooine. When he had promised his mother to free her too. And then his dreams had changed to her death, which was what had awoken him. He was still covered in sweat, but at the same time, he was thinking... Was this what Qui-Gon had meant? He had promised his mother to free her from slavery, but instead a moisture farmer had had to buy her freedom... Why had he never tried?

He knew he couldn't do anything for his mother anymore, even though her loss still hurt deeply, but maybe... Just maybe, he could do something for other slaves instead?

Under Palpatine slavery had become legal and many people had been enslaved, especially non-humans, so there was certainly a huge possibility for redemption...

Yes, maybe this was, in fact, what he needed to do.

Getting up completely now - no use in trying to sleep again after this sort of nightmare - he put on the plain, black clothes they had bought for him before and left his suite.

At first he wasn't sure what he should do now, for the middle of the night wasn't the best time for any of his training exercises... At least not for the exercises Novar - who, for some reason, had decided to stay with him although Anakin had offered him to leave multiple times - had forced him to do to get accustomed to his new body. Although he mostly just used his recently-build lightsaber for his basic physical control and tinkering on any kind of mechanical devices for his fine motor skills anyway. He was just lucky that these things _did_ achieve the results Novar had wanted, so the doctor wasn't complaining.

After dwelling on his thoughts a moment longer he finally decided to just go check the bridge. After all, there was a night watch always awake even during these hours, just in case anyone undesirable discovered them.

As he quietly entered the room he didn't immediately spot the small group of seven people - five crewmen and two soldiers - as they sat a little distance away, hunched over something and talking quietly, but once he did he walked over to them, curious as to what they might be discussing.

It seemed that they were looking at some drawings but before he could get a closer look one of the soldiers noticed him, jumping a little.

"Attention!" he called out, making the others scramble up while Anakin himself failed to hide a groan as they stood straight in front of him.

"Alright, alright, dismissed..." he muttered, shaking his head a little as the men relaxed. "How many times do I have to tell people not to do that anymore...?"

"It's protocol, sir," one of the crewmen commented nervously.

"What protocol though, you're free from that now! No need to keep to a protocol, just do whatever you want!"

"Maybe we want to do that?" a soldier asked, making Anakin huff. Why did he always seem to loose these arguments? Totally not fair...

"Whatever, what were you doing anyway? Something interesting?"

"Well... we were... designing a bit," a crewman answered.

Anakin blinked in surprise. Designing? That was something new...

"What are you designing? May I see?"

The crewman shrugged helplessly, before holding out the piece of durasheet he had seemingly been working on out to him. Taking it with a nod of thanks, Anakin let his eyes wander over it, taking in the different designs. There were a lot of different motives, mostly small pictures or other icons of sorts. He whistled quietly in approval.

"Not bad at all... What's your name?" he asked the crewman that had given him the picture.

"CM-16/75-5915, sir."

Anakin stared in confusion for a moment, having completely forgotten that, while the 501st had been with him for ages already, knowing what he meant when asking for their names, the other crew aboard this Star Destroyer hadn't worked with him before. They wouldn't know that for him, clone troopers had never been numbers and would never be. He had disliked that idea from the start and always encouraged individual names for his soldiers.

One of said soldiers understood the problem quicker though, answering as such.

"We call him Drafter."

"Thanks." Anakin smiled a bit, before giving the durasheet back to the crewman. "Well then, Drafter, you certainly live up to your name, I'm impressed. What are those designs for though?"

"We were trying to think of a logo for us, sir. Something everyone could wear on their armour if they want, to make it obvious that we belong together," Drafter explained carefully, making Anakin wish he could just disguise himself or something. Sometimes it was a little bit annoying how people were nervous when he was nearby, just because people insisted on making him their general. Of course, it was a good thing to have soldiers with him that could fight, but especially for casual conversations it could get rather awkward.

He _should_ probably answer the other one though...

"Nice idea. Did you already decide on one of those?"

Drafter shrugged.

"Not yet. We were still discussing, though it might become one of those three."

He pointed at three of the logos that now lay in front of him again.

"Hmm..." Anakin muttered, looking at them, trying to imagine which would look best on an armour. "I think I like that one." He pointed at one of the three symbols, which basically consisted of a circle with three lines in it that separated it from the lower left to the upper right, two black ones and a yellow one. Also, in the upper left half, a drop was visible. "Does it have a deeper meaning?"

"It's derived from the Mandalorian crest," the crewman sitting to the left of Drafter answered. "The drop stands for the blood Mandalorian warriors are willing to spill for everything they hold dear. And the yellow in the middle... Normally it's a wheat symbol, but we thought it might make sense to modify it a little, to look more like... a lightsaber, to be honest."

Anakin blinked in surprise. Well, if he looked at the lines like that, they _did_ look a little like a lightsaber. Although the hilt was kind of similar to an Aurek. Still, a pretty nice impression for such a small logo. And he liked to hear that the clones were working with the Mandalorian origin, it somehow made them seem even more... human. That they had even thought of incorporating a lightsaber into this logo though... It really wasn't difficult to see why, for the lightsaber he had built was yellow in colour too, and as such he personally thought it was pretty touching...

"That's... a really interesting idea," he said after a moment, not being able to hide a small smile at the thought of them using such a logo. "Though why is the other half of the logo empty?"

"We thought it would be a cool idea to let every unit of soldiers paint their own symbol inside... It gives off a sense of unity yet individuality," Drafter answered, even sounding a bit proud of himself if Anakin heard it correctly. And it was well-deserved, for the idea really sounded well planned out. He definitely liked it, and the men seemed relieved when he told them that.

A moment of silence reigned between them, until one of the soldiers spoke up again.

"General... May I ask what you were doing here in the first place? It's still very early in the morning after all..."

Anakin perked up. He had totally forgotten about his original plan of why he had come here.

"Right, thanks for reminding me! I actually came here to tell you that I finally came up with a plan of what to do next!" He was met with a group of surprised faces, making him cock his head in confusion. "What?"

"Well... no disrespect meant, but why would you tell _us_? Isn't this something to discuss with the higher-ups...?" one of the crewmen said carefully, as if worrying over the consequences of voicing his opinion. Anakin just stared at him in incomprehension.

"Why wouldn't I? You're just as much part of the crew as the others, be it Rex or Novar, or even myself." Not waiting for a response, he just kept talking, ignoring the surprised expressions of the clones for the time being. "Anyway, I was thinking about freeing slaves."

"Freeing slaves?" the second soldier - damn, he really needed to get their names - asked in surprise.

"Yes. There is a lot of slavery going on these days, especially since the Empire legalised it, and it's despicable. I should have done this a long time ago..." More than twenty years ago, if he was honest with himself, he should have tried to free them once he had been promoted to a Jedi Knight the latest... Of course, there had been the Clone Wars in between, but even before, he had never tried... Damn, he had been so stupid!

"That's a noble course, sir, but how would you start this? Most slaver's syndicates are well hidden and while the _Vengeance_ is a marvellous ship it does draw quite a bit of attention..." the first soldier answered, who seemed to be the one the least afraid to voice his opinion at the moment.

"Well, I've thought about it a little and came up with some ideas..." Anakin began - although to be honest most ideas were coming to him just now, but the others didn't need to know that - and as such they spent the rest of the night discussing, with Drafter quickly pulling out a fresh piece of durasheet to write down the results... Thankfully the seven men warmed up to him over the time and as such the whole thing turned out to be a rather pleasant planning session.

Yes, this might actually work.

* * *

 _I know this was a pretty slow upload again, mostly because currently my major plotpoints I had planned like to just go crazy... I'm really not sure what to do with this story, for I have just too many ideas and can't choose properly... And frequently changing my mind makes writing more chapters rather difficult at times. Sorry about that..._

 _Anyway, this chapter was in parts an information dump and I hope it wasn't too bad, but at least you got to see another new point of view too. Checking into the Rebel's side of the war for a bit. ;)  
Oh, and in case anyone is interested in the symbol Drafter has created... I've tried my best to use my mediocre image editing skills to actually recreate it. The link to it can be found on my profile._

 _Thanks to all of you who reviewed and I hope you're still here to keep reading, for I will do my best to make a good story out of this. :)  
(Tips, questions and/or suggestions are welcome, too)_

 _(And bugaboo13: Oh, the everlasting question of that is part of my problem, haha. Not one hundred percent sure yet, but if so, it probably won't be a common pairing anyway...)_


	11. Chapter 11

**Avril Gresh**

It was a normal working day for the human Avril Gresh, acquisition specialist of the KSC, the Karazak Slavers Cooperative. He and a few others had been selling their slaves on today's market and while profits hadn't been overly good, they also hadn't been horrible, better even than those last few times they had sold their slaves on this particular market.

So the ex-farmer turned slaver was in a rather good mood as they were closing up, finishing the last businesses of the day.

Which was when he noticed a man hurrying in their direction, another, much younger man in tow, both seemingly human.

The older one - a tall, fair-skinned guy, maybe around forty with short, black hair - was dressed a lot better than the other one - only little shorter, equally light-skinned and with shoulder-length dark blond hair - but that wasn't saying much, for both clothes looked rather run-down...

Avril couldn't help the sneer forming on his face. Those two certainly were no customers, they looked like they could barely afford their home!

Still, they were hurrying over to them and stopped just in front of him.

"Excuse me?" the older man began, sounding slightly breathless even. "I'm sorry to bother you, but I really need to sell a slave and-"

"No," Avril interrupted him gruffly, leaving the man to blink in surprise. But really, they were here to _sell_ slaves, not to buy more. At least not from anyone! They had enough problems money-wise as it was, no need to buy another mouth they had to feed halfway regularly if it wasn't worth it.

The man didn't seem to catch the hint though.

"Look, I know it's rather late already, but I really need the money... My surgery was recently destroyed in a fire and I just can't afford him anymore...!"

"Do we look like charity? If you don't want to buy anything leave!" Honestly, what did he care about the personal tragedy of that... well, doctor, he presumed. He was just here to trade with slaves, nothing more, nothing less.

"I... I understand, but... can't you make an exception just once? He's a talented mechanic, he can repair almost everything, he was in charge for the prostheses before, I'm sure he could be of good use to you..."

Avril frowned. Who did this guy think he was? Although he had to say, a slave that was mechanically skilled could be a nice asset...

He looked at the slave - for now he could see the collar around the man's neck - a bit closer while thinking about it. He looked physically fit enough and didn't seem overly rebellious, with his gaze firmly planted to the ground, his posture signalising silent consent. It seemed as if the slave had accepted his fate already.

Still, Avril knew that Greezim - his boss - would punish him harshly if he used their little money for buying stuff that wasn't worth it and he didn't have time to check out the man's claims.

"Please..." the probably-doctor tried again. "I just need some money to get by for a while..."

So the guy needed money that desperately...?

A small smirk played on Avril's face as he named a price. It was a scam, really, even a household slave without any talents would've been worth more, but that meant maximum profit should the man's claims be valid, and any profit if not. They could surely sell the slave as a physical labourer or a cleaning worker if all else failed.

For now, his smirk widened as he watched the man gaping slightly as he heard the price.

"But... He's worth at least ten times that... Can't you-"

"Look, either you take the money or you piss off. I can't have people delaying us over those discussions... Just remember: The next market is quite a while away. Good luck feeding him until then!"

And it was true, while there was a small chance that the man would be able to sell his slave to other slavers that visited here in between, the big slave markets were monthly at most, if not even rarer. And single traders normally took even worse prices than them. They at least had a big organisation behind them, for KSC wasn't an unknown name. In fact, they were probably the third-biggest slaver company there was, with only the Thalassian pirates and the Zygerrian Slavers Guild being bigger.

"...Fine," the man finally said dejectedly, before looking apologetically at his slave. "I'm sorry it had to come to this..."

"I understand, master," the slave answered neutrally, sounding almost detached. Huh, maybe that deal would be easier than Avril had thought... Hopefully.

Not that he could understand why people talked to their slaves as if they were friends or something, as he himself didn't see them as anything else than the more or less efficient workers they were, but oh well. It wasn't his problem.

He quickly dealt with the customer - for he didn't want to delay his return to the base any longer, as all other stuff had already been packed away by his coworkers - before finally grabbing the arm of their newest purchase, pulling the slave with him to the ship. He had no time for this, he'd just give him to someone else to check if the slave really was proficient with technology and then ignore him, the way he did with all the slaves as long as he wasn't actively trying to sell them.

Slaves were only barely better than pets, after all.

xxx

 **Anakin Skywalker**

Anakin barely managed to hide his relieved breath when he and the other slaves, that had been held on the ship of the slavers with him, were led out of said ship.

He'd been busy repairing for almost the whole trip, really, and while it had helped calming him it had also been incredibly annoying to always be watched by some burly slaver who couldn't even appreciate his doings in the slightest. But of course, he had been expecting that, so he had thankfully been able to keep his temper in check and just concentrated on his repairs.

Now they were just walking along a small path on some planet - sadly, Anakin didn't know which one, as even the jungle around them didn't tell him much - with slavers left and right... As if any slave would make an escape _now_ of all places, wherever they were it didn't look like a very highly populated area, honestly. And of course, they had all gotten those nice little handcuffs to further prevent them from acting up.

Damn, it was almost too easy to get back into the mindset a good slave needed to have... He was already beginning to feel the pressure...

Concentrating on his actual goal he kept walking, eyes fixed on the ground, like the other slaves around him. There were mostly Twi'lek females clad in skimpy clothes, humans - some wearing more clothes, some less - and a few other races. Anakin thought he'd seen a Wookie earlier, but he wasn't totally sure, for looking around now would've been a bad idea, he knew.

xxx

They kept walking for a while - with only jungle around them time was hard to judge - until the forest seemed to clear up a little and the slavers pulled them to a stop.

The slaver who had bought Anakin - the leader of this group it seemed - was then beginning to pull a few slaves away. All of the Twi'lek girls but two, two human women and three men, as well as the Wookie and a Gamorrean, making the remaining group a size of six, Anakin included.

Though he had no idea why they were splitting them up like that he couldn't exactly ask, so he just waited in line until the rest of them were moving again. A quick glance told him that they were actually passing through some sort of camp now - a few buildings standing on a rather big clearing between the jungle trees - and they were headed towards another, higher building, with around four or five floors. The main house, hopefully?

By now Anakin just hoped that this charade was worth it and that they actually were inside of one of the bigger bases of the KSC and not just some remote outpost without any information. Hard to say considering the fact that slavers didn't exactly occupy the most prominent places anyway, as despite slavery being mostly legal in the Empire - another thing to despise Palpatine for - not everyone liked it. And there certainly were anti-slavery organisations the Empire didn't care about either, as long as things happened in the Outer Rim.

Their group was now walking over to the main building, quickly being ushered inside and into some sort of spacey elevator which easily fitted them and three armed guards. This whole thing looked pretty high-class inside too, so maybe he was in luck...?

Once the elevator arrived the guards basically pushed them outside and through a narrow corridor, until they finally arrived in some sort of bigger room.

It was barely decorated but the existing decorations looked expensive, with the wall in the back even being completely made out of glass, but what drew Anakin's gaze more was that one part of the room was shut off with bars. They didn't seriously keep slaves around here like that, did they?

His question got answered quickly as they were all led exactly into that part of the room. Except for the human female left within their group, she was pulled away and led towards the middle of the room where a man was sitting that was pretty obviously the boss around here, wearing a suit and acting all high and mighty. Ugh...

"Sir, the new purchases of today," one of the men that brought them up was just saying, addressing the leader. "This human has been a private teacher before, mostly for science subjects like biology and chemistry. Very docile."

The leader nodded after a moment, waving his hand as if to dismiss her.

"Very well. Put her to the education building."

The guard nodded, before putting her back to the others for the time being, pulling out the other human male next.

As the attention of most people was on that slave now, so Anakin used the time to quickly press a button on his fake slave collar as he pretended to scratch himself, alerting the doctor that it was safe to attack now as this _did_ seem to be the boss around here. His collar had been emitting a soft tracking signal the whole time and as such dispatching a few troops shouldn't take too long. So soon enough this whole farce would finally end. He'd just have to remain unnoticed for a little longer.

The other human slave seemingly didn't possess enough intellect to qualify as a teacher, so the decision from the leader was to put him to the worker's building. And now it seemed to be Anakin's turn.

Keeping his gaze fixed at the floor he let himself get dragged in front of the leader.

"This one's a good mechanic as far as we tested, and he was dirt cheap, so profit should be guaranteed. Pretty docile too."

"Hm... Alright, into the education building with him. Though let's see if he lives up to your claim later, we surely have some broken technology around."

As Anakin was put back he barely hid a sigh. This was so _useless_...! Why not just look over them just behind the bars? In fact, why presenting them like that at all? It wasn't as if the leader particularly seemed to care and the slavers knew what they could do anyway.

The next Slave was a Mon Calamari who wasn't quite as docile, fighting against the hold of the guard a little as he was pulled towards the leader. He was in turn described as being 'partly rebellious' which led to the leader stating for him to be kept in the main building for... reeducation.

Hopefully Rex and the others would hurry up...!

After that the first of the Twi'lek girls then got moved into the 'pleasure building' and it took all of his willpower to not act up just then. Pleasure slaves... Of course he knew they were popular, he wasn't blind, but there was nothing worse for the dignity of the slaves... But it would end soon, the tried to tell himself... She would be free by the end of the day...

His resolve held until the other Twi'lek girl was being pulled out. Pink skin and rather pretty, as most female Twi'lek were, really... The slavers didn't seem happy though.

"Sir, about this one... She's a non-seller. We've tried all we could. Today was the fourth market she didn't sell," the guard said, sounding frustrated.

The leader grimaced, looking at the girl with what was pretty much a glare, making her flinch a little.

"What do you think you're doing? You're supposed to basically sell yourself to the customer, not play the dead article!"

"I'm sorry...!" the girl muttered, obviously terrified.

Anakin clenched his fists. No, he was _not_ supposed to act up now... Just a little bit longer...

"Do I look like I care?" the leader asked derisively before looking at another guard. "Come on, show her what happens to non-sellers..."

Anakin's eyes widened as said guard pulled out a whip of all things... They wouldn't... would they...?

But it did seem that yes, they wanted to whip the Twi'lek for not getting sold, with the guard standing next to her forcing her on her knees and the other one advancing with the whip in his hand.

Damn it... He wasn't supposed to break cover... He needed to stay strong, he...

Oh, fuck it.

"Stop!"

Basically everyone was turning around to stare at him, the slaves mostly in surprise, but the guards in distaste.

"What are you trying to say, scum?" one of them scoffed, but otherwise he largely went ignored, with the guard with the whip actually raising it for a hit.

Anakin frowned, raising both of his hands - for they were still tied together but he didn't care anymore - and summoning the whip to him, straight out of the guard's hands and into his.

A moment of shocked silence ensued as the man stared at his empty hands before whirling around.

"You- How did you do that?"

"Forget the how, stun that insolent bastard!" the leader said and the guard drew his blaster.

Thinking quickly, Anakin decided that - as he had already blown cover - he could just as well go all out now. The longer the guards were busy with him the better chances stood to his forces arriving before they remembered the Twi'lek covering on her knees in the middle of the room after all...

So he dodged the shot easily and quickly made his way over to the door, where one of the by now totally perplexed guards was staring at him as well.

"You will open the door and give me the key," he told him calmly, not even having to use a gesture as the guard immediately stood a little straighter.

"I will open the door and give you the key..." he muttered while doing just that, leaving the rest of the room gaping. Obviously they hadn't seen a Jedi in action yet.

"Thank you," Anakin said politely, before hitting the guy in the neck, knocking him out cold.

Sadly, that actually got the attention of the others.

"Kill him!" the leader ordered angrily and soon enough the four remaining guards were aiming at him with much worse than a stun blaster.

And he didn't even have his lightsaber with him, what a bother...

Dodging the first series of shots by jumping over them he managed to Force push one guard into the nearest wall with a not-so-nice sounding crunch, before stealing another guy's blaster with the force. His fault for not holding it tight enough, really.

The others kept shooting at him though so he had to keep moving, dodging their shots as he thanked the Force to be a Jedi. Knowing where they would shoot a moment before they did helped greatly, really. He even managed to get his handcuffs broken by a blaster shot he dodged before holding his hands in position.

Yep, that had been a risky move, but it had worked in the end, so he just grinned at the shot.

"Thanks for that!"

Holding up both of his now free hands he began Force choking the two remaining armed guards, raising them a little into the air, not even noticing how the leader and the unarmed guard looked at the two in horror. As did the slaves...

But it was over soon enough and the last guard also hit a wall just then, leaving him crumpled on the ground too.

Well, that had been easy...

"What... _are_ you?" the leader muttered, wide-eyes as he stared at him in fright after having jumped up from his chair before. "What do you want from us? Your freedom? You can have it, you're free!"

Anakin snorted humourlessly.

"Yeah sure, as if I'd need a guy like _you_ to tell me," he said disdainfully. What a coward...

The guy held up his hands as if placating Anakin would help the matter any - not that he knew, but still - before making a few steps in his direction.

"Look, take whatever you want, alright? I can give you money, or some of the slaves if you want...!"

Anakin clenched his teeth. This guy didn't even realise how he was treating the lives of sentient beings as products, as if he could bargain with what didn't even belong to him!

But before he could tell the leader where he could stuff it the man suddenly reached down, pulling up the Twi'lek girl that hadn't moved during the whole scene and putting her between him and Anakin, like a shield. She yelped, before whimpering quietly as he suddenly held a vibroblade to her throat.

Damn.

"So, whatever you want, you wouldn't hurt a girl for that would you...? So let me go in peace and we're totally fine, yes?"

Anakin was silent, trying to think about his options but failing to come up with something good. Choking the guy would take too long, the chances of him killing the Twi'lek were too high. Same with using the Force to move his hand away or to take the virboblade... If he failed, the girl was dead, he couldn't risk that...

Frozen, he watched as the leader slowly moved to the side, away from the middle of the room and closer to the wall on the opposite of the slaves, all the while facing Anakin, who was still thinking about what the hell he could _do_...!

Which was when a shot rang through the air and glass splintered everywhere, surprising everyone in the room and making Anakin duck away, just in case.

But whoever had shot hadn't meant to hit him, for a second later, the leader of the slavers crumpled down, making the Twi'lek girl give off a small scream as he basically fell on her.

Acting quickly, Anakin ran over to her, moving the dead body away without much regrets before kneeling down next to her, wanting to make sure she was okay.

Which was when the rest of the glass front broke as multiple clone troopers came into the building, blaster's drawn, but quickly noticing how there was no other danger anymore.

Anakin mostly ignored them for the moment, instead looking at the Twi'lek who was shivering badly, her eyes still wide with fear as she was pressing a hand on her right arm, where he could see some blood...

Cursing in his head he looked up, trying to see how many clones had come and how the situation was in general. Not that easy, were they still wearing the stormtrooper outfit with only a few exceptions.

A notable one being Rex, who somehow had found his old armour it seemed as he was wearing his trademark Phase I helmet again, the blue markings included.

"General, you were supposed to lie low. Did anything happen?" he asked, making Anakin grimace.

"Kind of... I'll explain later, please get this girl some medical attention, she's been grazed by a vibroblade."

Rex nodded, calling over another clone, but the Twi'lek had seemingly gone into some sort of shock state, only flinching away as said clone came closer.

"Shh..." Anakin muttered, trying to sound placating. "I know this whole situation must seem totally surreal, but we're here to help you... We're no slavers, we want to free you... Everything will be fine..."

He wasn't sure if she actually understood what he had told her, but at least she didn't say anything as the clone trooper came and offered his hand, uncaring it seemed that the hand she slowly stretched out to him was covered in blood...

With a small sigh of relief Anakin watched how he led her away before getting up himself again. At least that would be taken care of for the moment...

"So, what's the status?" he asked Rex after a moment.

"Troops have landed all around the camp, they should be infiltrating it this very moment. The slavers won't manage to flee. We've taken precautions for the sake of the slaves too, including the activation of your interfering transmitter for the slave collars."

"Good..."

Silence stretched between them for a moment as the clones began to take the other slaves with them to a troop transport that was hovering next to the broken glass.

"Well, I'll go check the lower floors now. Join me whenever you're ready," Anakin then said, already turning around to the door he knew led to the elevator and walking a few steps.

"General! You've forgotten this," Rex called again though, and as Anakin turned around - already halfway through the room - he barely caught the lightsaber that the other had thrown to him.

Whoops.

"Right, thanks. See you later!"

And with that he was out of the door, ready to make sure the other slavers wouldn't leave this base alive. And this time he wouldn't hesitate to kill, wouldn't let it come to a situation like with the poor Twi'lek girl, of that he would make sure...

* * *

 _I have to admit, writing new chapters is getting pretty difficult, so many things to consider and plotlines to think about... But I won't give up, so don't worry! :)  
_

 _This time there even was some action as you could see Anakin's first real doings as a (more or less) free man! Hope you liked it! Although this particular doing is not quite over yet... More will follow in the next chapter._

 _Thanks a bunch for all the reviews, so happy to see that my story manages to pull reactions out of people so to speak, that's always great to read! :)  
_

 _(And regarding specific reviewers:  
knobrien21: I wish I could, but I don't want to spoil you! :( But be assured that almost any longer story about Anakin at this point in time will most probably have his children in them too sooner or later.  
Amenofis: Thanks for the suggestion, but my different plot ideas mostly regard several subplots, with the main plot being the same and only 'minor' things changing (like which character constellation lives through a certain main plot point or different ways to achieve the same goal) so I'm not sure if it makes sense to publish them too... Maybe I'll write summaries to some of the 'What If's somewhere though, let's see... :)  
bugaboo13: Thank you! Though I'm a little confused, what's "not a common pairing"? I didn't name any pairing yet, did I?  
FusionRobin: Oh my, you're making me blush, thank you so much for that praise! I really hope that you will keep liking this story in the future too then!)_


	12. Chapter 12

**Rex**

Rex watched his general for a moment longer before turning back to the scene in front of them. He knew Skywalker could take care of himself usually, so for now he focussed on getting the slaves into safety together with his men and checking if any of the slavers had survived.

Of course, they had shot the leader, who had been the most probable to have some additional information, but even from their position outside they had realised that Skywalker would not have been easily able to do anything and killing the man was surely preferable to letting him get away.

Also they soon found that, while four of the guards were dead - two lying near walls with quite a few broken bones and two more lying in the middle of the room, cause of death still unknown - one more was only unconscious, lying in front of the part of the room covered in bars.

What kind of sick bastard had designed that room anyway?

Shaking his head lightly he was just helping with carrying the now tied-up unconscious guy to their ship to question him later when he felt some sort of tremor going through the building.

"What was that?" one of his men asked - they really needed to get some paint, with their stormtrooper armour it was difficult to recognize who was talking as long as they still wore a helmet - and everyone looked around, until Rex got an incoming call.

"Captain, is everything alright?" the voice of another clone asked. "There was an explosion in the main building, third floor."

"We're still at the top floor," Rex answered back after a moment. "We will investigate immediately though. Stay on your position and make sure nobody will be able to flee."

After hearing a confirmation Rex turned to his men, quickly selecting a squad to stay here and help the slaves, as well as confiscate any interesting looking technology. They could take the one living slaver with them for questioning. The others would be coming with him to investigate.

xxx

They had to clear another floor before arriving on the source of the explosion, which prompted Rex to split them up again - they were fully trained soldiers after all and enough people to make sure the slavers wouldn't be doing anything stupid.

So in the end he and a group of five other clones reached the third floor. Only to stop and stare at the scene that presented itself in front of them once they had reached the room that seemed to occupy most of the floor.

It vaguely resembled a medical room as there were some beds around, as well as examination tables and other medical supplies, but all those things had been obviously pushed away with a lot of force, some had fallen over or broken, others only stood in an unnatural way.

General Skywalker was on his knees in the middle of the room, unmoving, staring into space with an expression of horror on his face. The explosion must have come from him as he sat in the centre, but a closer look around the room soon revealed that there had been a very good reason for it.

Around them were quite a few corpses. And he wasn't talking about slavers, but there were children. From his current position Rex saw maybe five or six, none of them human, aged between five and twelve maybe and lying on the floor in puddles of blood. They must have been dead before already, judging from various injuries that could not have come from the explosion. It was heartbreaking, even for them, so Rex quickly averted his gaze, instead trying to identify the other corpses.

For there were older people too and most of _them_ looked like they had been slammed against walls or buried under furniture, most like having been alive before. They were partly clad in white, but most lay in positions that made it obvious that something very heavy must have slammed into them.

Rex did not know if he really wanted to ask what had happened here, he could imagine well enough.

Sick bastards, experimenting on child slaves.

At the same time though, Skywalker still hadn't moved at all. And while Rex was still staring at him in confusion he began to realise the reason for it.

The younglings.

Rex didn't know much about it, but the tales of what had transpired in the Jedi temple after order 66 had been set into effects had actually made their way to him. A lot of his men from the 501st legion had been traumatised by it, some still had their problems although thankfully most had managed to come to terms with what had happened sooner or later it seemed. Still, back then it had been a much discussed topic and a hard time for most participants of the massacre...

So of course, for Skywalker who had spent the last decades basically trapped inside of his own mind... It was obvious he had barely aged, mentally, so he didn't seem to have found ways to come to terms with it yet... Especially since it had been _his body_ who had done most of the killing...

"General, we should get going," he said softly but insistent as he stood next to the man.

His words went by ignored, for Skywalker was still staring, seemingly lost in his own world, eyes filled with horror and grief.

Suppressing a sad sigh Rex then called someone over. They would have to take command for now, making sure everything continued to go according to plan, for he definitely needed to bring the general back to the ship. Who certainly was in no position to do so himself...

xxx

 **Anakin Skywalker**

Once again, Anakin was brought back to his senses by feeling a sharp pain in his cheeks, making him blink a few times as his eyes finally began to focus again. He frowned slightly as he looked around, momentarily confused. Where was he again? He had been in the slaver's building before, right? He had wanted to free some slaves and-

"General, can you hear me?"

Needing more strength than he would have liked Anakin refocussed on the owner of the voice. Rex, he noticed, and he had taken off his helmet. Huh...

"What happened...?" Anakin rasped, only then noticing how his throat felt raw. Had he been shouting?

"That's what I'd like to know," Rex answered only, looking at Anakin with a piercing stare. "We only noticed a huge explosion, but when we arrived whatever had transpired was already done."

Anakin thought for a moment, before the memories finally came crashing back down on him, making him freeze up again as he remembered.

All those dead children...

But he wasn't quite as far away as before, so when Rex shook him lightly he managed to focus back on the clone instead of sinking into despair as he had done before. He swallowed hard.

"It was... The children... Too much like back then..." he finally whispered, shaking his head lightly as he tried to get the memories out of his head. He didn't even dare closing his eyes, knowing what pictures would wait behind them...

 _Don't think about it, just shove it away again..._

He looked at Rex in hopes of not losing himself too much like that, though still feeling the pain inside, the helplessness he could never quite squash...

But he had something in his mind he needed to tell someone, something that was tearing at his very being, a horrible thought he was afraid of voicing but needed to, for otherwise the doubts might consume him...

"Rex, I... I think I'm going crazy," he muttered after a long pause, as he put his head into his hands. When looking around earlier he had realised that he was back on the _Vengeance_ , sitting on a bed in one of the empty spare rooms they had, so he didn't care about his surroundings too much anymore.

"Sir?" the clone asked, guarded surprise audible in that one word.

"I... saw _him_ in this room," Anakin elaborated in a small voice. "Vader. He was everywhere, the moment I noticed the children it was... Like I was thrown back in time... I mean, I _know_ he's dead, I _beheaded_ him, but... I saw him in every single of those slavers and I... just lashed out I guess..." He clenched his fingers as he tried not to remember the scene too explicitly, before looking up to the captain, his most trusted friend he head left. "Tell me honestly... How bad is it?"

For he knew the other must have noticed _something_. He had never been the quickest in noticing things, so if he had understood that there was something wrong with him, Rex must have seen so long ago.

Rex looked at him in silence for a long moment, before finally speaking up.

"May I speak openly?" he only asked though, making Anakin wince a little. Why did he even have to _ask_ that?!

"Of course!" he quickly said as such with a light frowning, momentarily distracted. "What do you think why I asked you? You're free now, not bound to any rules anymore... Damn, insult me if you want, just... don't ask permission for voicing your thoughts!"

He couldn't help but feel horrible when the clones did that outside of battle situations, for it almost felt as if he was their _master_ or something then... A despicable idea, they were supposed to be _free_ now after all!

"I don't do this because I have to. I'm doing it because I greatly respect you," Rex answered though, making Anakin stop his train of thought in confusion. What was _that_ supposed to mean? Thankfully the clone kept talking, explaining himself. "You are a man of honour General Skywalker, and like every man of honour you have made mistakes in the past, grave ones, even. Everyone does, but honourable men do not just forget about their mistakes, they keep regretting them for a long time until they finally come to term with them. But they will never forget. Vader is one of those mistakes for you and I can tell you that as long as you are unable to accept your decisions from the past that led to your mistakes you will never be free of him. You need to learn what every person having regrets has to one day: That you cannot change the past, you can only try to accept what has happened, and begin to move on."

Silence reigned between them at those words, with Anakin being unable to do much more than stare at his friend in surprise. It wasn't what he had imagined to hear, and not even close to what he would have _liked_ to hear, but it had given him a lot to think about. He wouldn't have thought that Rex saw these things in such a light... But maybe he was right?

Anakin _knew_ he wasn't able to forgive himself at this point in time, but... maybe he could learn...? He would have to think about it.

And thinking he did, even long after Rex had left the room Anakin stayed there, sitting on the bed and reflecting over the other's words, slowly slipping into some sort of meditative state as he tried his best to process what had been said.

Although he did recognize how the clone had in the end avoided actually answering the question at all... Which probably meant he didn't want to hear the answer. Another reason to think about what Rex _had_ said he guessed...

xxx

 **Obi-Wan Kenobi**

Obi-Wan suppressed a sigh as he looked around the circular room filled with people standing around an equally circular table. Besides him there were around a dozen more people present, all of them part of the 'Alliance to Restore the Republic' and that was all nice and well, but that Bail - who had offered him the use of his first name only minutes after they had met up again after so many years - had even managed to rope him into attending this meeting... He was getting old, really.

Of course, he had been meeting up with the almost-ex-senator to get a ship to be able to fly to Dagobah alone so he did, in a way, owe him something, but still... His appearance had caused a commotion a little too big for his likings and while for now only those of a higher stand in the Alliance knew of his existence and support it wasn't enough to make sure this knowledge would stay there. And he didn't want to drag Luke into all this too early. Maybe he should actually place him with Master Yoda as soon as possible, provided the old master agreed with him... He would have to leave soon, no matter how much of a morale boost he would be to the Alliance right now.

"So, there are two things left to discuss for today," Bail was just saying, having taken the lead for they were meeting up on Alderaan, forcing Obi-Wan to focus back on the man. "First, on the subject of Darth Vader..." Immediately a lot of murmurs and muttering followed, while Obi-Wan straightened a little. He knew what would be coming. "As we all know there were rumours about his demise, but as he showed up in person only a day later in Coruscant they were quickly dropped again. Not everyone believes that those rumours are untrue though... And today we have a special guest addressing just that topic. Please, General Kenobi, enlighten us."

Bail motioned to him and despite wishing he would not have been put to the spotlight like that Obi-Wan knew that it was a necessity to tell the Alliance of what he knew. So he cleared his throat and began to talk, ignoring the murmurs of the few people who hadn't yet understood who he was.

"Thank you for indulging me, Senator Organa," he began politely, seeing no reason to not be. Although he needed to keep in mind that Bail would not be Senator for much longer, Obi-Wan had already heard of the fact that he would be resigning in two months time, giving Leia the responsibility of sitting in the galactic senate. Obi-Wan didn't understand how Bail thought this was a good idea, putting her way too close to Palpatine to make it look safe in his eyes, but the other man had insisted and Obi-Wan hadn't wanted to fight over it so he had relented. But now back to the topic at hand. He looked around at the collected people. "I assume I do not have to introduce myself, but if anyone has not heard of me yet: I am a Jedi and I was a general in the Clone Wars. And I once knew the man who called himself Darth Vader."

Another round of whispers. Obi-Wan certainly wouldn't give away Anakin's name, if only for the reason that for him, Anakin and Vader were almost like two different people and even now he couldn't understand what had driven Anakin to this extreme. But still, the people needed to understand he knew what he was talking about. "I don't know if you have heard of it, but Force-sensitive beings in general can feel tremors in the Force. And if people die, especially people a Jedi knows well or another powerful Force-sensitive, these things do create tremors that can be perceived by other Force-sensitives."

He straightened even more now, making sure that everyone was listening before speaking on. "I have felt that tremor. I can say with absolute certainty that the man who called himself Darth Vader is no more." Or at least his connection to the Force was so thoroughly severed that the man would pose no real threat anymore, but how that should have been possible without dying Obi-Wan couldn't imagine so he simply continued. "The person that is currently found in Coruscant cannot possibly be Vader himself. Maybe it is a double, another Force-sensitive put into a similar suit, but it cannot be Vader himself."

"Sir, with all due respect, we have seen him choke three soldiers and a senator without touching them already, with one of the soldiers not making it away alive," one of the humans Obi-Wan didn't recognize said gravely. "We have all reason to believe that this is the real Vader."

"I understand, but as much as it pains me to say, in theory everyone with a little training in the Force could learn how to Force choke. It is not a skill Vader had exclusively, it is only his trademark skill. In fact, I knew several people once who were able to do it, Jedi as well as Sith."

A small silence followed, only broken as a Mon Calamari raised his voice.

"But if the person below that mask is not Vader, who else could it be?"

Obi-Wan shook his head.

"That I do not know. But the Emperor was always playing his cards close to his chest so it could be anyone. I might find out if I got closer to him, but travelling to Coruscant as a Jedi would be suicide these days, regardless of the fact that the Vader there is not the real one anymore."

An agreeing murmur followed, though several people did not look totally convinced. But it was alright, they didn't need to believe his words right now, the important thing was that they had heard them. A Jedi claiming to know of Vader's death was certainly something to think about and it might be enough to boost the morale of the Alliance to rally their forces with more energy, to go against the empire. Or at least that was what Bail was hoping.

Obi-Wan himself wasn't all too sure yet, but he knew that sooner or later he would help the Alliance anyway. Once Luke was safe. He could see what was to be done then.

"Thank you, general," Bail was now saying, having realised that this was all Obi-Wan had to say. He nodded and stood back a little, melting back into the circle of other people. "I know this probably wasn't fulfilling for all of you but I assure you General Kenobi will still be here after the meeting to address individual questions. Though of course he is free not to answer something if he doesn't want to. But now to the last topic for today, for not everyone has enough time to stay here for much longer. Again, we seemingly have to talk about _Vengeance_."

There was another round of murmurs and Obi-Wan listened a little closer now. Even he had heard of _Vengeance_ by now, for the news of various slaver bases in the Outer Rim being positively _eradicated_ had travelled fast through the galaxy.

"So, what we know about this ominous name by now," Bail continued, face unreadable. "is that it is most probably a group of people. A number of slaver's bases have been destroyed in these last weeks and all of them had the same sign painted on one of the walls that were not destroyed in the attack as well as a warning message on the lines of ' _Vengeance_ will be coming to all of you'." He pushed some buttons at the console in front of him and a hologram of the symbol appeared, spinning slowly to make sure everyone could get a good look at it. "We can assume that the slaves were at least taken, for the only corpses we were able to find were humans and seemed to be slavers, but we cannot be sure what those people are doing with the slaves. Also, the reason why it's most probable that they are multiple people is, of course, the size of the bases. Nobody should be able to take out those bases alone."

Obi-Wan frowned as he took a closer look at the floating symbol. He did agree with what Bail had deduced as of now, but there was something... off about the symbol. He couldn't quite describe it, but what he could see was that there was something written at the sides.

He raised his hand, causing Bail to look at him.

"Yes, general?"

"I'm sorry for the interruption, as you might have intended to talk about it later, but I recognize Mandalorian characters at the border of the symbol and found myself curious... What do they say?"

Bail blinked at him in surprise.

"Those are letters? I'm sorry, I didn't realise. I will give it to the protocol droids for a translation, one moment please." He quickly typed something more on the console in front of him. A moment of silence stretched on, during which a few people whispered theories to each other. Finally there was a soft beeping noise and everyone looked back to Bail, who frowned.

"Looks like those people have not only derived their crests from the Mandalorian one. The words written around the circle are, clockwise from around the top 'Honour', 'Loyalty', 'Courage' and 'Retribution'."

"So this might be a rogue Mandalorian group?" one of the other senators asked.

"Maybe," Bail agreed, though not sounding very convinced. "We don't know enough of the group to say for sure. Although we do have a lead regarding at least one of them."

He straightened a bit more as he talked on. "Our most interesting source by far was a Bothan slave girl that survived one of the attacks. She was questioned after she had been found by some of our men at the most recently destroyed base and she had some interesting things to say..." Obi-Wan was now fully focussed on the man, honestly curious what kind of information they might get from a witness. "According to her she was being escorted somewhere when _Vengeance_ struck and the slavers around her fled, causing her to hide as best as she could. But she still saw quite a bit, there was a person she kept calling 'Angel of Death' according to the protocol droids we were using for communication. This 'angel' killed many slavers without touching them and others with what she called a 'glowing yellow stick'. Only when he had vanished she dared to leave her spot, fleeing the base." Bail looked around the table into the people's faces, only staying a moment longer with Obi-Wan's, his eyes serious. "It seems as if the leader - or at least one of the higher ups in this group - is a Force user."

Gasps went around the table as Obi-Wan's eyes narrowed, with the man confirming his own suspicions. Could it be true? A 'glowing yellow stick' could very well be a lightsaber and the yellow line in the symbol of the group could symbolise that too, even though the hilt looked more like the letter aurek than an actual lightsaber hilt...

"This theory fits with what our people found when investigating the one slaver base we came to before all others," Bail continued into the silence, sounding grave. "Some people definitely were killed by lightsaber wounds while others died through blaster shots. A few had strange causes of death, some seemed to have been thrown against walls by some high strength or suffocated in the middle of a room..." He shook his head. "So for good or bad, it looks like besides a group of maybe-Mandalorians we definitely have a Force user on our hand, most probably a rogue Jedi."

* * *

 _Well... looks like writing new chapters was actually more difficult than anticipated... Ahem. But as promised, I didn't give up, so here you got a new chapter! :)  
My worst problem actually was that I had planned and written this chapter completely different, then got stuck somewhere else and made a short break, during which I kind of changed some plot points that made the subplot I had originally wanted to start around here useless and I had to completely rewrite everything...  
So instead you got a breakdown for Anakin and a freshly-written Obi-Wan POV, including a bit more info about what the Rebels are up to at the moment. I do hope it was at least partly worth the wait!_

 _Next chapter will have mostly Anakin again and what he decides to do regarding Rex's words... so stay tuned! :) (And I'll try my best to not update that slowly again...)_

 _A big thank you to anyone who is still reading this, or read it in the meantime (or at any point in time, really) and decided it was worth reading~!_

 _(Again, answers to specific reviewers [a bit late of course but well, better late then never]:_

bugaboo13 _: Thanks for clarification! By now I decided on a pairing [I did have enough time, haha...] and it will most definitely be an uncommon one. Actually I'd even call it rare, as I don't think I have seen it before, but I do think it will fit. Also I will not include Starkiller, because I realised too late how his story kind of interferes with how Anakin was in control of his body inbetween. But maybe there will be something a little similar in the future.  
_ Scarlet Firesong _: Isn't Ahsoka a Togruta? I still agree though, Twi'leks are awesome! (And Togruta too ;) )  
_ Storylover2036 _: I guess it is, in a way... But Anakin's mind is pretty... broken right now. So I do not think he quite has the same ideas about Light and Dark as a Jedi should.  
_ knobrien21 _: Haha, she was actually planned as a cameo for I once had her planned as a main character but changed my mind. But who knows, maybe she'll appear again in the future? ;)  
_ FusionRobin _: Thanks a lot! I'm always a little insecure about it, but (at least?) being from Germany English is my second language so I've been around it for quite a few years already, also I'm talking it regularly for work. So glad to hear it seems to show somehow. :) Regarding your question I can't really answer it of course, but as you could see in this chapter Vengeance did raise some awareness already, so some sort of encounter with the Rebels will be inevitable I guess, sooner or later~  
_ oliviasbizzaremind _: Consider your demand fulfilled. ;) I'm sorry it took so long, but thanks a lot for the praise! I hope I won't disappoint in the future!  
And to all the others: Thank you very much! Sorry if I'm not actually answering each of you separately but I don't want to blow the author's note up too much with my ramblings... Still, I really appreciate every review I get, they make me soo happy! :) )  
_


	13. Chapter 13

**Anakin Skywalker**

Mostly uncaring about what else was happening in the galaxy Anakin and his men continued with freeing slaves, acting on the information the clones had found in the first slaver base to find and eradicate even more of those. As such they didn't have to put up an act to get in anymore, which suited Anakin just fine for he knew he wouldn't be quite up to it at the moment.

He was still mulling over what Rex had told him, unable to let it go but also not really knowing what to do about it, so he tried his best to suppress it while killing as many slavers as he could - though trying to stay clear of everything looking like laboratories, just to be sure...

At least he could help the people that deserved it more than most others and soon a lot of them were recovered enough so that they could leave, going back to their family or wherever they wanted.

The ones that couldn't leave - be it because they had nowhere to return to or because they were simply too broken to leave - posed a problem at first, for it was clear that they could not simply stay abroad the _Vengeance_ forever, but surprisingly Novar had a solution for that.

Knowing a few like-minded doctors on Alderaan that were well-versed in psychology - a necessity at least for the broken slaves and those who had been raised as slaves from the beginning - they arranged a quiet deal with a few of the... more open ones, namely those that didn't have a problem with looking after slaves that had been freed through the use of violence. They could send the freed slaves to Alderaan under the pretence of having found them on deserted pirate freighters and the likes, and as long as nobody would claim them within two weeks of their arrival Alderaanian law would treat them as free people again.

It was a small security risk, but Novar vouched for the doctors and since Anakin made sure there were no official documents left - or any survivors for that matter - they thought it as safe as it could get for the time being.

They knew they had to find a better solution on the long run, but their supply of slaver bases also wasn't unending anyway, so for the time being they arranged themselves like that.

xxx

In fact, it seemed that word of their little group had travelled around by now, for the last two slaver bases they had travelled to had been empty, the slavers probably having vanished after finally catching up to the fact that their base location coordinates had been compromised... And as they had just placed all remaining ex-slaves on Alderaan again the _Vengeance_ almost felt empty now. As empty as a fully occupied Star Destroyer could feel of course, but nevertheless.

And less work meant more time to think, something Anakin would have preferred to avoid as everything came back to one fact: He needed to learn how to deal with his past. And he had not even the slightest idea on how to do that.

He didn't want to ask Rex either, for he felt this was something he had to do alone, so he spent a lot of evenings thinking about it, before falling asleep only to be woken up by nightmares a few hours later. For those dreams also never ceased... He was just glad he could deal with little sleep, for without the knowledge that he had survived years without sleep - even if it had been mostly Vader in control - he was sure he would have gone crazy even faster...

xxx

It was after such a night, full of trying and failing to fall asleep again after a nightmare about _the younglings_ , he finally had some sort of epiphany. They were currently positioned near Ryloth, knowing that slavery was strong on that planet and hoping to maybe catch a slaver's ship or some pirates nearby - for they had started to widen their reach from planetary bases to ships too after realising that the probability of always finding some bases was just too low - but that also meant that they were close to another planet Anakin knew way too well for his liking: Tatooine.

And if there was one thing that was still haunting him about his past, now more than ever, it was the death of his mother. In all those years he had never even visited her grave, even when he had actually been on the planet. What a _great_ son he was...

He would have to talk to Rex and Novar immediately. There was a little change of course in order...

xxx

 **Owen Lars**

Sometimes it seemed as if the whole galaxy had conspired against him, Owen surmised. First, he had heard news of Darth Vader actually still being alive, although Kenobi had told him he wasn't. Second, said Kenobi had now contacted them _again_ a few days ago, this time wishing to take Luke away from them. Luke, who was like a son to him and who he dearly loved even though it was getting harder and harder to convince him not to try and join the Imperial Academy... But he couldn't, he simply could not go near Vader at all, just to be sure...

And now Kenobi wanted to take him away from them, train him to fight for some crazy cause, maybe even joining some rebellion instead of staying here, with Beru and himself, where it was safe. And the crazy old man just wasn't listening to any of Owen's arguments. Honestly, nobody ever came to _Tatooine_ of all places.

Of course, Owen had just finished that particular train of thought when the door to their small living room opened and Luke rushed in.

"Uncle Owen, come quick! There's a stranger at grandmother's grave!" he explained, slightly out of breath.

Immediately Owen was on alert. Strangers on Tatooine were already attention-worthy in itself, but why would anyone be near Shmi's grave? She hadn't exactly been a well-known person after all...

"Luke, stay inside, I will check this," he grumbled, quickly getting up and grabbing his blaster rifle - just in case.

"But-" Luke tried to protest, but Owen cut him off.

"No discussions." There always was this small probability that it was the Empire... And they could not, under any circumstances, find out about Luke.

Luke flinched a little but nodded, glumly sitting down on one of the chairs.

Owen didn't see more as he was already out of the door, exiting their home to make his way over to Shmi's grave. He wouldn't let anyone defile that place, for while he hadn't known the woman for long she had really grown on him during that period of time.

And true enough, there was a figure kneeling in front of the grave. Although they were not actively doing anything Owen was on his guard, gripping his rifle a bit tighter.

"Oye, who are you?" he called out gruffly. "This is private property!"

The figure jumped before scrambling up with surprising speed to turn around, making Owen blink in surprise. It was a boy, barely older than Luke, with rather similar hair but taller. And for a moment it seemed as if tears were glittering in his eyes. But this oculd have been the light playing tricks on him, for a moment later they were gone.

"I'm sorry," the boy quietly apologised, holding up his opened hands a little as he noticed the rifle. "I did not meant to intrude, I just wanted to visit this grave..."

Owen frowned.

"What's it to you?" He hadn't seen this boy before but he looked as if he had barely been _born_ when Shmi had died...

The boy sounded surprisingly sad as he answered.

"Well she's my... grandmother."

Owen stared at him. So he was claiming to be a son of Anakin? Yeah, sure. And the slight hesitation before the last word also didn't made it more believable.

"I don't believe you," he stated as such, making the boy blink at him in surprise. Honestly, did he think such a weak lie would get him past this? Sure, it helped that Owen knew that Anakin had only ever had two children and that the other was a girl, but still. "And now leave my property!"

That set the boy frowning again, his hands now balling into fists.

"No! I won't leave until I've done what I came for."

Owen's grip on his rifle tightened further, making his knuckles turn white.

"Look, either you leave or it will get uncomfortable for you."

"Oh come on!" the boy scoffed, sounding surprisingly fearless. "I'm not even doing anything! Just sitting here and talking to a grave, it can't bother you _that_ much! I'll leave once I'm done, not even setting another foot closer to your home, but I will _not_ let myself get chased away now."

Owen stared at the boy with a frown, trying to detect any dishonesty, but he really only seemed interested in Shmi's grave... And he didn't seem the type to defile graves either, especially as it didn't look like he was equipped for a task like that...

Damn, he might not like strangers but he couldn't just tell the guy to piss off, even if he wasn't what he claimed he was...

"Five minutes," he said after another moment of staring between them, and the defiance turned into victory, causing him to add "But if you're not gone by then I might still use my rifle!"

"Thank you," the boy just said and, after a moment of hesitation, turned back to the grave, kneeling down again and in general behaving as if Owen wasn't there.

What a crazy guy... But not crazier than other folk that was running around on Tatooine, so in the end Owen just shrugged to himself and went back inside.

Now he just had to find a fitting excuse for Luke and keep him inside a bit longer... No use in making him get even more ideas about leaving the planet, it was difficult enough to discourage him from his dreams of leaving the planet as it was... He would send him out later for an errand, taking his mind off of this strange happening.

xxx

 **Anakin Skywalker**

Anakin stared into the glass in front of him with a sigh. After being almost chased away from his mother's grave he had cut it short, true to his words, and now was sitting in the most popular Mos Espa cantina, trying to wash away his sorrows with alcohol... But with little success.

Sometimes he hated being strong in the Force, for as long as he wasn't drinking _very_ quickly - something he had no interest in at the moment - it was almost impossible to get drunk... He only got a growing headache and frustration... Ugh.

Sighing again, he thought back once more to his mother's grave. He knew he had messed everything up when promising her to get stronger, for this exact thing had led to his downfall... And in the end, all of his so-called 'power' had been for naught, for he hadn't been able to fend off Vader when it had mattered most... Longing for more power had been the wrong way, then, but he also didn't want to stay weak, so he was kind of in a dilemma...

At least he had been able to talk to his mother for a bit again, it was almost too easy to imagine her listening to him from the afterlife... or at least he hoped she would do so if she could, even though he had been a really horrible son to her for these last years...

But he wanted to do better now, he would make her and Master Qui-Gon proud somehow, freeing slaves was just the beginning of something much bigger... Or so he hoped. After all, 'Vengeance' had built up quite some reputation by now, especially with slavers, for that mark some clones had decided to always leave at the slaver bases they eradicated, together with a message, had quickly spread through the galaxy, meaning that it wasn't hard for the public to see that there was a group behind all these attacks and as such-

Anakin's thoughts stopped abruptly as something came flying into his direction, causing him to shift away a mere second before it connected with the table he had just been leaning on, making it fall over and spill his freshly ordered drink.

"Hey!"

With a frown he pulled up the guy that had just crash landed into the table up by his arm, glowering at him. He was already irritated enough without some kid crashing into his space. Well, probably over eighteen already, but with quite a babyface, so 'kid' fit alright.

"What do you think you're doing?" he growled, but before the boy could answer there was another, deeper voice from behind, speaking rather accented Basic.

"Take your puny hands off him, he's mine!"

Not letting go of the struggling boy Anakin turned around a bit to see a Trandoshan standing there, glaring at the both of them. Great, a stupid slaver to make his day even worse.

"Get in line, lizard!" he snapped - ignoring the fact that insulting the angry male probably wouldn't help his case - before turning back to the human. Only to push him away again and duck as he felt a shot coming, that was just barely missing his head.

"Didn't your mother teach you that it's impolite to shoot at people from behind?" he asked the stunned Trandoshan - the coward probably wasn't used to his back shots missing - before crossing the distance between them in a flash and using his anger and frustration to strengthen his arm with the Force to punch the guy straight in the face, sending him flying.

He flexed his fingers a little, ignoring the resulting crash as the Trandoshan landed in another set of tables probably. Times like this made him _almost_ miss his metal arm, which could pack even meaner punches. But only almost.

When the Trandoshan didn't get up again for several seconds Anakin turned back to the kid. Thanks to this little outburst just now his temper had cooled off a bit again and he realised that the kid had obviously bitten off more than it could chew. Well, maybe the fact that he was holding his arm as if it hurt had something to do with it too.

"Hey, kid, are you alright?" Anakin asked as such, making the guy frown.

"I'm not a kid anymore. And yes, I'm fine," he answered, almost sounding a bit like he was pouting and judging from his general posture only strengthened that assumption. But well, Anakin hadn't exactly been helpful, so it was understandable in a way.

He ran a hand through his hair with a sigh, before pulling the other with him to the bar. He needed another drink it seemed and as the kid had spilled his previous one there wasn't much else to do then order another. And one for the boy. It didn't matter too much if he was seventeen or eighteen anyway.

"Very well," he finally said once the drinks were there, ignoring the fact that the other was staring at him strangely. "So, what was the problem with that overgrown lizard? Didn't seem like a friendly conversation to me."

"Well, that was an... acquaintance of mine. We had a little disagreement..." the boy admitted reluctantly though not touching his drink. "And my friends thought it a good idea to bolt before it got nasty." He shrugged, before wincing a little. "Looks like I wasn't so lucky."

"Huh... Great friends you have there then," Anakin commented dryly, making the other one frown.

"Sounds like a better life than being a loner, sitting around in a cantina and drinking," the guy retorted, making Anakin blink a few times in surprise, before chuckling dryly. Well, it _had_ probably looked rather pathetic, that much was true.

"Still beats having to waste away life on Tatooine forever," he answered anyway, and judging from the sigh of the other he had hit a nerve or something.

"Tell me about it..." the boy grumbled. "I wish I'd just finally be allowed to go to the navy! Some of my friends are already there, others will try out this year but no, I'm not allowed..."

Anakin frowned, before lowering his voice a little. One could never be too careful in cantinas like that, really.

"Let me tell you something, kid: You don't want to go to the Imperial Navy." Last thing he needed were more imperial supporters, honestly...

Again with the frown.

"What do _you_ know about it? Also, my name's Luke, not 'kid'."

Anakin rolled his eyes.

"Well, alright then _Luke_ , just know that I know plenty about the navy and it's just... not a very desirable place. Of course, as a human, you might even get somewhere, but... There are better possibilities out there, trust me."

"Maybe for you, but in case you hadn't noticed, living on Tatooine in general doesn't mean that one has the resources to do whatever he wants."

Anakin snorted.

"Believe me, I know _that_..."

Silence reigned between them for a long moment then, with Anakin being lost in thoughts about his own childhood on Tatooine... He wondered how his childhood friends were faring these days... Did they make it past this rotten planet? Or were they even still around? He didn't know and, to be honest, he was pretty sure he wouldn't even recognize them... Despite not feeling like a lot of time had passed, it had been over thirty years ago after all...

"Actually, I just realised that you know my name but I don't know yours..." Luke suddenly said, making Anakin look at him. The boy had by now begun to relax slightly and even nipped on his drink.

Opening his mouth to answer he was interrupted by another voice.

"Skywalker!" the Trandoshan - who seemingly had regained consciousness - shouted, making Anakin whirl around in shock. How did that bastard know his name?! But to his even greater surprise he wasn't staring at him, but at Luke, who had turned around himself. "Do you already need the help of strangers now to fight your battles? Don't be such an dishonourable human!"

"You _shot_ at him, idiot!" Luke replied defiantly, but stood up and stood in front of Anakin who still could do barely more than stare at him.

Skywalker. Seriously?

How probable was it to find another family named Skywalker on Tatooine, and in Mos Espa no less?

But... it couldn't be. It _couldn't_... She had died before giving birth, he had killed her...

His heart hurt at the mere thought of Padmé, but there was this boy and his name was _Skywalker_...

He needed to know.

Blinking a few times to refocus on reality he noticed how Luke was currently in a pretty bad situation it seemed, with the Trandoshan easily keeping the upper hand in their fight. Well, not any longer, he needed answers _now_ , no time to wait until their little squabble was done with.

He stepped up to the Trandoshan from behind, strengthening himself easily before ramming the guy's head against the nearby wall, making sure he crumbled immediately. He didn't know if he was still alive and for the moment he also didn't care, he just wordlessly threw the bartender some credits and took Luke by the shirt, dragging the stunned kid out of the cantina that had gotten rather quiet around the scene.

Uncaring of anything else, Anakin just focussed on making one step after the other, dragging Luke a little further away before finding a suitable empty alleyway, slamming the boy against a wall.

"What's the name of your father?" he asked just then, making Luke gape at him.

"W-What?"

"Your father's name, _now_!" He increased the pressure a little, only focussing on wanting an _answer_.

"Uh, it's Anakin! Anakin Skywalker," Luke quickly said quickly, making Anakin let him go immediately, feeling as if all air got pressed out of him at once...

He had a son...

Damn it, he was a _father_! Somehow, Padmé's child had been born, the boy was _here_!

...How was he supposed to deal with this...?

"If you're looking for him, he's long dead though," Luke suddenly said, having sunk down to the ground, looking almost as shocked as Anakin felt. "He died even before I was born that good-for-nothing scoundrel..."

Anakin wasn't sure if he was supposed to be more shocked about the bitterness in Luke's voice when speaking of his father or about the fact that he had just described him as a 'good-for-nothing scoundrel'... Leaning against the wall he had pressed Luke against a moment ago for support he sighed, deciding to tackle the latter thing first. At least it was... kind of distracting him from this revelation...

"What do you mean, scoundrel?"

Luke stared at him with a frown.

"Well... he was a spice freighter navigator... I wouldn't call that a radiant life."

" _What_?!" A spice freighter navigator?! This was _ridiculous_! "Who told you that?"

But seemingly he had reached the point where Luke was beginning to get stubborn, for he just folded his arms, still sitting on the ground.

"What do _you_ care? It's not as if this would change anything!"

Anakin closed his eyes as he clenched his teeth, trying not to snap back. Luke was right in a way, there was nothing he could do right now about whoever had spread these lies... But he could do something against the lies itself.

So after taking a few deep breaths to calm down he opened his eyes again.

"I'm sorry for my outburst. It's just... Your last name surprised me. I know quite a few things about Anakin Skywalker and I'm pretty sure he _never_ worked as a navigator, much less on a spice freighter, but I didn't know he had a... son."

Luke stared at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Are we talking about the same Anakin Skywalker?" he asked.

Well, Anakin really wanted to know _that_ too.

"I guess 'Anakin Skywalker' isn't the most popular name combination around. And it _is_ pretty convenient that you're living on the same planet he grew up on, don't you think so?" he explained his logic, making Luke frown.

"That's true... But still, what else was he supposed to be, if not a navigator?"

"Well, a pretty great pilot for once," Anakin answered immediately, being rather proud of this fact. Thankfully he had remembered in time that adding 'and a Jedi' right now might not be the best idea if they didn't want to get problems. Jedi were still seen as traitors after all. Damn, he himself was probably seen as one of the _real_ traitors by those Vader hadn't managed to kill... "Look, how about we take some sort of private room somewhere to talk? I can tell you what I know about Anakin Skywalker-" or at least some parts of it "-and you can decide if you believe me or not. Deal?"

Luke still looked suspicious, but in the end seemingly decided that news about his father were worth it and nodded as he stood up again.

"Alright..."

And as such they began to walk, with Anakin leading the way to a small hotel he hoped was still there... It was a bit more expensive but it would be exactly what they needed.

He was just glad that Novar had reminded him that they would need money should they leave the Empire. It wasn't as if the Empire would ever notice the - in comparison with other projects - small amount of money being transferred to another 'secret project' every month after all... And it was certainly useful in situations like these.

* * *

 _So, this chapter came quicker than the last at least, phew. I'm trying to find a way to keep writing more actively, but let's see how this will work long-term. For now it brought a new chapter at least.  
And what a chapter it was, Anakin has finally met Luke, yay!_

 _Next chapter will have some more interaction between them of course. Who knows what Anakin will do now, when he finally found out he is a father~_

 _(Also, just to defend myself preemptively, just in case: I decided that there was no reason why Beru and Owen should have removed Shmi's grave [which they seemingly did in canon as it was gone in Episode IV], so in my story they dimply didn't. :)  
_ _Also, just to clarify: Last chapter's Obi-Wan POV was happening during this chapters [first] Anakin POV. So Vengeance is around for a while already know and the Alliance has heard of them because of it)_

 _(Review answers:_

mchan0104 _: Thank you, I'm glad to hear you like the portrayal of his breakdown, for this is what I'm mostly worried about while writing. And don't worry, this most certainly wasn't the last POV for Obi-Wan, that much I'll say. ;)  
_ AquaDragonSilverFire _: Yes, actually I'm toying with the thought of adding her in, but I'm not sure what role she would play... I do have a few ideas, but... I'll have to see how the story evolves.  
_ TheDarkKunoichi _: Glad to be of service. ;) But seriously, glad to hear you like the story, I hope it will continue to be to your satisfaction. And yes, i like Rex too, he's my favourite clone.  
_ Rufescent _: Ahh, thanks a lot for all the praise! I'm so glad you like it and I hope you'll continue liking it so much! I'm doing my best to update a little more frequently than 'once every few months' now, too. :p  
_ Amenofis _: Hope fulfilled? :) Anyway, I won't abandon this story if at all possible! I know I sometimes have longer periods where I just can't get myself to write, but I really really like this story so I'll do my best to actually finish it one day, even if it may tike a long time still._

 _And again: Thanks to all the other reviewers too! I'm always happy to see a new one there and your feedback and thoughts keep me motivated to always return to this story, even when I'm working on something different inbetween. So thank you.)_


	14. Chapter 14

_Small warning for a fight scene. It's not very detailed, but not nice. Just saying._

* * *

 **Darth Vader**

When Darth Vader regained some of his senses he had no idea of how much time had passed... And while that, in itself, wasn't unusual to his returns back to Chaos, the unusual thing was... He wasn't dead. Or, more precisely, he had not been able to make his way into the afterlife, it seemed. Instead he felt... disconnected... As if nothing could hold him into place anymore.

Was this what happened to spirits who lost their connection to the force? Was he doomed to float around aimlessly forever?

But wait, one after another.

He concentrated on keeping as much of himself together as possible and tried to find out where exactly he was.

He didn't recognize the place, it looked like a desert though and all around him was rubble... Seemingly something big had been destroyed around here some time ago...

He wondered if he had moved at all since his most recent death by this impudent little twerp...

xxx

He had no idea how long he was just... _existing_ , for in his current status he had no feeling of time or anything and while he could see in a way it wasn't the same as being alive... And seeing nothing but sand and stone everywhere also didn't help.

But finally he felt a change, at first not quite understanding what was changing, but then he saw a person. A human male, short black hair... Yes!

Something akin to malicious glee flowed through him as Vader recognised the human as his apprentice. So he had not moved it seemed and his student was now looking for him? Excellent.

Contrary to popular beliefs he had not only been the Emperor's lapdog, but begun to take in his own Force-sensitive student... After all that had been one of the few things the Emperor had seemingly forgotten to add into their contract. Or maybe he had just liked to see Vader try and circumvent the rest of their contract that included not allowing any harm to come to his master...

Well, former master, really. Death always freed him from the contract and while he had not been able to return to Chaos he was still very much dead.

But this was a state he could change as he had already done in the past... Not that he had ever been in a situation where he had not been summoned from Chaos, but that didn't mean it wouldn't work anyway...

He knew that his former student would not be able to see him but Vader could in turn watch the boy as he looked around at the site, trying to find anything of interest it seemed... And after his search was rather unsuccessful he did what any Force user might think of: He settled down, beginning to meditate.

Vader tried to close in on his apprentice, not yet sure what to do but definitely wanting to get closer, when he felt something else interesting...

The mind of the boy was basically opening itself up as he connected to the Force. He was almost inviting the Sith to come closer... Not that Vader believed his apprentice knew what was happening, but... who was he to say no if an opportunity presented itself like that?

Willing himself to close in on his apprentice even stronger now it didn't need long until he was able to enter his mind. Immediately he felt the sensation of being inside a body again, even though he wasn't in control - yet. In fact, this wasn't all too different from what he normally did after being summoned from Chaos to take over his victims, so he was finally on known territory again.

And he didn't make the same mistakes twice, immediately assaulting the surprised mind of his former apprentice until there was nothing left of it except for its connection to the Force, making sure that he would not get any kind of unpleasant surprise from that part ever again. With Anakin he had thought it fun to keep him there, torturing him with the fact that his life had turned to hell - Vader himself had already taken over dozens of people after all, so always destroying their minds had become boring - but this time he didn't want to take any risks.

The battle had needed only a few seconds and finally Vader knew he was now alone in his new body.

Immediately reaching out with one of his hands he began to levitate part of the rubble into the air. The rubble complied immediately, which could only mean one thing:

He had access to the Force again.

A grin spread over his new face as he clenched his hand into a fist, turning the rubble into dust which he let go before standing up, stretching a little. Now, this was _much_ better.

Of course, he was a little smaller than he had become used to - in the suit he had easily been able to tower over everyone and his new body sadly was nowhere close this size - but he would manage. He had other... qualities to make up the lack in size after all...

He looked around for a moment longer before sniffing in disgust at the setting and beginning to move. He needed to find the place where his apprentice had landed his ship. He knew the knowledge of it would probably come back to him sooner or later, for in general if he took over a body he did receive the basic memories of the previous owner at that point in time, but he needed to find out how much time had passed...

And then he could think of maybe joining the Empire once again, this time to first get his chance on killing little Anakin - who he knew would be trying to come for the Emperor sooner or later - and later overthrow the old guy himself, now that he wasn't bound to anyone anymore...

Oh yes, this would be a fun experience...!

xxx

 **Anakin Skywalker**

"...and that's basically the most important stuff."

Anakin looked at Luke, who was sitting across from him in the small hotel room, seeming awed, the anger and fear of before forgotten. Sure, it had been a lot of information, for Anakin had tried to give a basic overview over his life - though glossing over the darker episodes, to be honest - while trying to make it seem as if he just knew this guy called Anakin Skywalker... He didn't want to tell the other that he might be his father of all things...

It had been surprisingly nice to just... get it all off his shoulders, in a way. Although, as living on Tatooine didn't help Luke much in polishing up his knowledge about the Clone Wars, he was incredibly curious regarding anything that was connected with his father, something Anakin gladly provided. Of course, hearing that one's father had been a Jedi instead of a navigator probably also helped in adding to the curiosity.

Yes, it had been nice to just recount some tales of the good old times, even though they couldn't be very detailed.

"How do you know so much about my father...?" Luke finally asked, making Anakin glad that he had managed to think of a basic excuse for his knowledge while talking.

"I... met him a few times, when I was very young... Also, there is a lot of information around about him if one cares to look," he answered as such, nonetheless feeling bad about lying to his son.

Luke sighed at that, looking to the ground a bit dejected.

"I wish I could've met him too..." he muttered, making Anakin wince a little. Oh if he only knew...

"I'm sure he would have liked to meet you too."

Silence now reigned between the two of them as each dwelt on their own thoughts, until Luke suddenly gasped, making Anakin look at him in alarm.

"What's wrong?" he asked nervously, already fearing the worst, but Luke just shook his head.

"I just remembered, I was supposed to get some parts for our moisture vaporators... My uncle will kill me if I won't be back with them soon!"

He jumped up, suddenly all hectical while Anakin wondered who would qualify as his uncle...

It couldn't be... Or, could it...?

"Your uncle isn't called Owen, is he...?" Anakin asked carefully while standing up himself, making Luke turn around to him with a frown.

"Why do you care?"

Anakin shook his head. The reaction had been clear enough, if he would have been wrong he was pretty sure Luke would have denied it.

"Nevermind, sorry. I just thought I heard the name in connection with Anakin's before."

Damn, it was weird talking about himself in third person... And Luke also didn't seem entirely convinced, but thankfully he let it go.

"Well, alright. But now I'll have to go, Watto can be... difficult to deal with and I need to go back as fast as possible."

Anakin's eyes widened a little.

"Watto?" The old Toydorian was still around?

"Ah, yeah, I suppose as an outsider you don't know him. It's a junk shop owner from around here. And for some reason he's been granting us a discount on some things, so we like buying stuff from him, even though Mos Espa is a little further away than Mos Eisley," Luke explained, obviously thinking Anakin had asked because the name was unfamiliar.

"May I join you?" Anakin asked before he could stop himself, making Luke blink in surprise.

"I guess so? Why though?"

"I'm a pretty good engineer," Anakin answered evasively and Luke just shrugged as they left the room.

"Alright then?"

xxx

As Anakin had made sure to pay upfront they could now quickly leaving the small hotel - that, thankfully _had_ still been around - before walking down the streets of the small town until reaching Watto's shop that looked almost like Anakin remembered it.

Trying to ignore the pang in his heart as memories tried to flood him he entered the building after Luke, who quickly began to talk to the Toydorian about his vaporator parts.

Anakin just stood there and stared, surprised at how, despite not having seen him for twenty years, Watto didn't seem very changed... It was almost crazy.

The interior too, while there was other junk displayed now, it didn't seem that different...

Suddenly, Watto turned around to look at him.

"And who's your friend here? Doesn't quite look like those ruffians you normally bring in when trying to make business," he asked grumpily, flying closer to Anakin to muster him. Anakin could easily see how Watto was suspicious of him, but he had just realised that he had never told Luke his name. And Luke was realising that too, for he also turned around to him.

"Actually, you never gave me your name, did you?" he asked with a frown, now himself looking suspicious.

Damn, what was he supposed to say?

It seemed that he had hesitated for too long though, for Watto spoke up again.

"Now boy, pay for your parts and go home," he said gruffly, almost as if trying to shoo Luke out. _"This simpleton will one day get himself killed with his naivety..."_

The last part was said in Huttese and while it had been a while Anakin could still understand it perfectly well. And he knew what Watto was trying to say with that.

 _"I'm not trying to scam him or anything,"_ he answered as such, eyes narrowed a little. His own Huttese was a bit rusty but still understandable, making both Luke and Watto stare at him.

"You speak Huttese?" Luke just asked while Watto's frown only deepened.

 _"Look, if you are here to bring trouble, that's not the right place. Go to the cantina or something!"_

 _"I think I've already brought enough trouble to this place when I was a child,"_ Anakin answered, though not quite sure why he was doing this. Hinting at his past. Watto wasn't stupid, he would catch up sooner or later... He turned to Luke who looked increasingly confused.

"Sorry about that. Yes, I can speak Huttese. But I guess you will have to go back now, right?"

Luke jumped, obviously having forgotten about it again.

"Right, yeah. Thanks for your time and the story!" He turned to Watto. "And thanks for the vaporator parts. See you soon!"

With that he was out of the door, leaving Anakin to stand inside with his former master next to him.

 _"What kind of story did you tell him?"_ the Toydorian asked suspiciously, still in Huttese. No wonder, had he never much liked Basic. Seemingly that hadn't changed over the years.

 _"The life of Anakin Skywalker,"_ Anakin answered truthfully, making Watto give off a sound that sounded suspiciously like a scoff.

 _"What do_ you _know about Anakin Skywalker?"_

Anakin snorted lightly at the pure ridiculousness of the question. Of course, Watto didn't know, but still... If there was anyone knowing about Anakin Skywalker it ought to be him!

But he didn't know what to answer there, so he turned away instead, walking over to the display of the various junk parts, wondering if there was anything of interest he could buy to placate the Toydorian. It didn't seem to have changed a lot since his days but there was quite a bit of chaos in the shop anyway, with stuff lying around that belonged to the shelves and so on.

 _"Stop pretending to know Anakin Skywalker,"_ Watto was just continuing, obviously taking the silence as an affirmation of his thoughts. _"it's not a good thing these days to know him. And if you're not here to buy something leave."_

Anakin barely listened, absentmindedly looking at some of the stuff that was lying around, putting it back where it belonged. He had done that a lot when he was a child but since it had been technical stuff he never quite minded, sometimes even being allowed to repair a few of the more broken tools. He was pretty sure Watto thought most of them lost, but he had always been creative and as such managed to fix at least half of them some way or another.

But actually his thoughts were racing as he had just realised one particular thing: Watto knew Luke. And that meant he might have found somebody who could tell him how this was even possible, or at least something more than what little he had been able to ask the boy himself without growing too suspicious.

 _"I'm not pretending to know Anakin Skywalker,"_ he finally said, unsure about if he was just doing something ridiculously stupid, but at the same time knowing that it wasn't even all too unusual for him. So whatever, really. _"I_ am _Anakin Skywalker."_

There was a moment of stunned silence before Watto burst out laughing.

It wasn't exactly a happy laugh but Anakin still patiently waited until the Toydorian had calmed down again, tinkering with some broken toy he had just found in a shelf.

 _"This... This is the most ridiculous thing I've heard in a long while!"_ Watto finally said, sounding like he thought Anakin was crazy - which of course, was only half wrong. But the other didn't need to know that. _"Seriously, you're what? Twenty? Twenty-five? You and him were barely alive at the same time!"_

Anakin sighed.

 _"Actually I'm... around forty-one now, I think. Not that I_ feel _that old."_

Slowly Watto grew more serious and began narrowing his eyes.

 _"What are you trying to get at? You must realise that this doesn't make any sense, why are you trying such a cheap trick at all?"_

 _"Because it's not a trick."_ He placed the part he had been working on on the counter, looking much better now.

Watto stared at it, then up to Anakin and back down.

 _"Alright, assuming I believe you... How would you go about explaining to me what happened to lead to_ this _?"_ He motioned at the younger body that did not fit to his actual age at all.

And Anakin explained.

xxx

 **Luke Skywalker**

If Luke had thought that after leaving Watto's shop his day couldn't get any worse he was wrong once again.

As if Mrink, the Trandoshan that liked picking fights with him and his friends, hadn't been bad enough, this mysterious guy - who _still_ hadn't given Luke a name - had been even worse, in a way.

For while he had seemingly known a lot of things about Luke's father, part of which Luke couldn't quite believe he got from the man himself, he had also been... scary. Incredibly scary.

It bothered Luke to admit it, but when he had seen the other man angry he had shown so much raw _power_ that it was frightening. He didn't want to be on the receiving end of this ever again if possible, though he had a feeling that even what he had been experiencing hadn't been the full rage the other was capable of.

If he was lucky they would never see each other again.

But right now, of course, luck wasn't with him at all, for about half way through the desert that lay between Uncle Owen's farm and Mos Espa, his speeder gave off a loud bang, followed by a puff of smoke and then it began to steadily slow down until it was standing. In the middle of the desert, with nobody nearby for miles, probably.

He let loose a string of curses his aunt Beru would most certainly wash his mouth with soap for, but he didn't care right now.

Dismounting with a grumble he walked around his speeder, trying to see what exactly was wrong with it and hoping that he could fix it even with his limited supplies. As if he had nothing better to do... But at least he had an excuse if Uncle Owen asked where he had been...

xxx

He was working on it for quite some time already and his frustration was growing higher by the second - it was infuriating to work without the tools he needed - when he noticed a small figure in the distance getting closer by the second.

Somebody else with a speeder he guessed. And in general people on Tatooine weren't the most helpful bunch. If they saw someone with a broken speeder chances were they would either ignore them or check for valuables. Not necessarily while keeping the original owner alive.

He tensed, grabbing the rifle from his speeder to prepare for the worst as he watched the dot growing bigger and bigger. Until he recognised the figure, wondering if he should be relieved now or even more worried.

He settled on a groan, but didn't put down his rifle even when the guy who claimed to have known his father came close enough to definitely recognize him and finally pulled to a stop only a little away.

"Luke? You alright?" he asked, sounding almost as if he really was concerned but Luke couldn't quite believe that.

He shrugged.

"I'll manage."

Somehow he found that nameless man creepy, as if there was some sort of other level of him he didn't understand at all. So he was hoping that maybe this hint would be enough to get him to leave, but of course not...

Instead, the man dismounted his own speeder.

"I'm not judging your talent, but this really doesn't look good. I'm pretty sure you already realised that it's smoking?"

Luke rolled his eyes. "Thanks, Captain Obvious."

The other man shrugged nonchalantly.

"If you want I can check it out? I do usually have a few tools with me that might help with it."

Good question... did he? On one hand he was still more than wary regarding this weird man, but on the other hand help, or at least the tools to repair his speeder, sounded good, for he didn't want to be stuck here until nightfall. Or whenever else somebody less well-meaning found him.

So he finally nodded with clenched teeth.

"Fine. It seems to be the engine. But please be careful, this is the best speeder we have."

The man just looked at him with a look that might have said 'Are you kidding me?' but Luke didn't know he was mocking the speeder or telling him that _of course_ he would be careful.

And as he didn't comment Luke couldn't do much more than watch as the guy went to work, pulling out tools seemingly out of nowhere, quickly completely focussed on his task. It wasn't like he could help very well, the speeder wasn't big enough for that.

Luke had to admit though that working like that the man didn't seem scary at all, just like a regular mechanic from any good shop, but if he thought back on all the anger when asking him about who his father was...

Seriously, he still didn't understand that reaction at all. If the guy really _had_ known his father, shouldn't he have known that the man had had a son? But if he hadn't, why fabricate so many stories about him?

xxx

He got lost in his musings after a while, for the other man didn't offer a topic of conversation and he didn't want to interrupt, when he could see some dots in the distance again.

Tensing once again, he looked down at the other who seemed to be immersed in his work at the engine - that at least was no longer smoking.

"I don't suppose you're expecting friends, are you?" he asked, making the man look up. For a moment Luke was sure that the other's eyes were filled with deep pain, making his breath get caught in his throat, but a moment later the other blinked and it was gone.

"What do you mean?"

Luke pointed at the distance, causing the man to turn his head. He needed a second but then he cursed and quickly got up.

"I don't like that. This isn't a lonesome traveller, there are multiple people, definitely. I don't suppose your uncle would be coming to look for you from that direction?"

Luke snorted. "No." If anything he would receive a slap on his head for being so late once he managed to get home.

Provided he did make it home in one piece that was...

The man sighed and pulled something from his belt that looked like a short metal rod or something. At first Luke thought it might be some sort of extendible staff to fight with - not that he believed it a sensible weapon against blasters - but the man just held it in one of his hands like that, looking rather useless.

Gripping his rifle a bit tighter Luke watched as the dots grew bigger at the horizon, soon forming people on their speeders. He could see a few humans, but most were Trandoshans. Was that a coincidence or a connection to Mrink? Damn it...

A feeling of dread filled his stomach. Whatever was about to happen he somehow knew he wouldn't like it.

Finally the group of about ten people came to a halt, stopping in a semicircle around them, most already with scowls on their faces. Great...

"You!" one of them said, pointing at the stranger, and Luke finally recognized Mrink. He looked a little worse for wear, probably a result of the rough handling from before, but at least his angry gaze wasn't directed at Luke. Yet.

The other man sighed.

"Yes?" he asked, sounding surprisingly calm for somebody who was cornered by a group of thugs.

"Listen up, punk!" Mrink barked, still pointing at the man. "I don't care that you might have some more brawn than your puny arms suggest, but I'm not letting myself get embarrassed by someone like that in _my_ city!"

Standing only a little bit away, Luke could see how the eyebrows of the other man rose. But his expression still held no fear, not even a little bit of worry. If anything he looked disbelieving.

" _Your_ city?" He snorted, causing Mrink to growl again. "Mos Espa most certainly isn't _your_ city, however well its horribleness might fit you."

Luke couldn't do much more than stare. Did he have a death wish? He didn't even seem to _care_!

"Alright that's enough!" Mrink snarled, turning his head towards the others. "Let's show him what we do to people who don't seem to understand when they're supposed to pay some respect!"

Before they could ready their guns though, the man turned his weapon on. And now, finally, Luke understood what it was. A _lightsaber_!

And with its blade glowing yellow he suddenly realised who this mysterious man must be.

Vengeance.

There was no other possibility, nobody was even _thinking_ of openly running around with a lightsaber these days, not even the worst ruffians. They were absolutely illegal and even though people could still buy them at times on the black market everyone knew the Empire would have your head if you got caught with one...

But Vengeance... Even on Tatooine people had been gossiping, the cantina being full of people who tried to find out who this group might be. Some were convinced the group was full of Jedi that were plotting to overthrow the Empire. Others insisted they were no Jedi, but normal people who had gotten hold on at least one lightsaber and had let this get to their head. Some believed it was a mix of it, or something completely different.

In general everyone agreed that the leader of the group wielded a yellow lightsaber though, no matter if Jedi or not.

So it was no wonder that the thugs did start for a moment. Even Luke couldn't help but take a small step back, just in case Vengeance - as he was calling the man now for lack of a better name - would turn against him. Though they usually only targeted pirates and slavers, right...?

"What about that respect now, hm?" Vengeance taunted. Which seemed to be enough to shake Mrink out of his stance.

"Oh I will show you alright!" he snarled, looking over to his men. "Come one now, this guy's got a huge bounty on his head. Dead or alive! That's even better! Attack!"

And he began to shoot at Vengeance.

But to everyone's surprise it didn't even seem to bother the man, he just lightly moved his lightsaber and deflected the shot. And the next one. And the one after that.

It was almost as if he was having _fun_ with blocking the shots, always seeming to know where the next one would hit, moving his lightsaber only a little to deflect it, causing it to harmlessly hit the sand on either side of him.

There was another roar and suddenly chaos seemed to break loose.

Mrink jumped from his speeder and tried to physically attack Vengeance. The man easily evaded, but that caused the other thugs to also dismount, some drawing vibroblades, some sticking to their guns.

Luke finally lost sight of what was happening there as Mrink suddenly jumped in front of him, now snarling angrily at _him_.

" _Skywalker_!" he spat, his usual dislike increased tenfolds. "So you're with him too? This is the last time I'm putting up with you!"

Suddenly Luke got the strong urge to _move_ , no matter where, but get away, so after only a second of hesitation he threw himself to the side - only to feel pain blooming in his shoulder.

He cried out. That bastard had _shot_ him! And he might very well have killed him had he not moved away!

But once he hit the ground the pain actually made his eyesight go a bit blurry, so he barely saw how Mrink, having moved his blaster into position once again was suddenly thrown back, seemingly out of nowhere, until a yellow blade was sticking out of his chest.

"Not my son you bastard!" someone growled - the voice sounded like Vengeance, but it didn't make any sense...

After that the fight was over quickly as far as Luke could see from his position on the ground, his hand grabbing his shoulder that was hurting so much - it didn't feel sticky so there might not have been blood but even then there was so much sand around irritating the wound and he already noticed dark spots dancing around his vision as he tried to follow Vengeance's movements - who basically _slaughtered_ the thugs from before... Even throwing his lightsaber after one that tried to flee...

And suddenly he was close by, kneeling down next to Luke, having produced some sort of comlink from somewhere.

"Rex, I need some medical support, _right now_!"

He sounded almost panicked, but Luke couldn't understand why even as he tried to stay awake, knowing that falling unconscious in the desert might as well mean death. But he only managed for a bit, not even understanding what the other was talking about anymore... He finally fell unconscious when some sort of shuttle landed and white-clad people exited it. Where those... Stormtroopers...?

* * *

 _Yeah, please disregard what I wrote last chapter about updating more frequently... I'm just horrible like that. D:_  
 _I don't want to give too many excuses now though, so instead, let's just accept it for now and again, please believe me when I say that I won't abandon this story either way. I love it way too much for that._

 _Also, sorry for the slight cliffhanger, I do hope the next chapter will come up a bit quicker, but you know how it goes... At least we got some more Luke and Anakin though, even if it was mostly awkwardness, haha.  
_ _Aand we have some more of Vader here! Surprised? Looks like he just isn't going down as easily as Anakin would like~  
(A note regarding the apprentice though: I know I said I wouldn't include Starkiller and before anyone asks, this wasn't supposed to be him, but then again, it doesn't really matter who he was at this point in time, so... feel free to speculate :p)_

 _(Review answers [I hope it's okay if I do this here? I mean, people who aren't interested can skip it but here I can also answer anonymous reviews and it's easier for me then PMs as I keep forgetting those, although I'll try to answer if somebody sends me something of course... If not please tell me and I'll try to change it]:_

HonestApplejack _: I know I didn't really include much of their talk, but I always assumed he's talking more about the Clone Wars and "lighter" topics than trying to make Luke see how bad the Empire is... For this_ is _Anakin and he is rather horrible with politics and making people see things his way... He's just charming that way. :p  
_ KiwiBird13 _: Thank you so much! I do know I still make lots of small mistakes (oh be happy you can't see the first drafts of the chapters, haha...) but I'm always glad to hear if people say it's fine the way it is, I feel a lot more secure in writing in another language like that. So thank you. :)  
_ AnakinandPadme _: Well, as this is an Anakin-centric story there will have to be the big meeting between him and Obi-Wan sooner or later, so you can be awaiting that one, but I do have to confess that while Obi-Wan certainly will have his POVs (in the next chapter will be another one for sure for example) he probably won't be the main focus of the story, so I'm not sure how much "screen time" he will get overall... But I do at times change my planning a bit, so who knows~?  
_ Badwithwords _: I just wanted to thank you for your kind and motivating words, really! I do at times have my problems with updating regularly, especially if a lot of things happen at once, so despite having this chapter lying around almost finished for months my mind was somewhere totally else for that time... So thanks for reminding me to finally get my behind to move and finish this to upload it! I'm very glad you like it as of yet, as well as the premise. :)_

 _And a big thank you to all other reviewers too! I'm so glad to see that people love what I write and I never would have thought to get so many reviews from people in this relatively small Fandom, so... thank you all so much! I hope you'll continue to like it and give your feedback, it is much appreciated!)_


	15. Chapter 15

**Obi-Wan Kenobi**

When Obi-Wan saw the Star Destroyer in the orbit of Tatooine only moments before it jumped into hyperspace he was already highly alarmed.

So it was probably not surprising that he grew a little careless as he landed his ship very close to the Lars homestead, to make sure Luke was alright.

Only to be greeted by an angry Owen, glowering at him.  
"What are you doing here Kenobi?" he growled, making it pretty obvious that the old Jedi was not welcome, but Obi-Wan paid no mind to that right now.

"Where is Luke? Is he home?" he asked instead, causing Owen's frown to deepen even further.

"No he's not. I've sent him to Mos Espa to get some new parts for the vaporators... He's running late but he probably got held up with some of the shenanigans his friends always do..." Obi-Wan's worry increased. So he wasn't home yet? Owen didn't seem to notice though as he continued to talk. "Why? What's gotten into you, appearing here with a spaceship of all things? I've already told you-"

"I've just seen a Star Destroyer hovering over Tatooine," Obi-Wan finally interrupted. That shut Owen up.

"What?! _Why_? Tatooine has nothing the Empire could-"

This time he broke off for himself as he realised that yes, there was one thing the Empire could want... Especially now, as Vader had ceased to exist...

"Damn it Kenobi, if Luke is gone this will all be your fault! Leaving the planet like that... I thought you're here to protect him!" Owen suddenly started again, making Obi-Wan hold out a hand.

"Please, we don't even know if something has happened," he said, forcing himself to sound calm. "I'll fly to Mos Espa and try to find out more."

"I'll join you," Owen immediately said, cutting off any protest Obi-Wan might have had with his next words. "I know which route he usually takes. That way we can't miss him if he's only on his way home."

"Alright."

xxx

Soon enough they were back in the ship, flying along the desert as quickly as Obi-Wan dared while simultaneously being able to watch for a sign of Luke on the streets or an inkling of his Force signature, as weak as it was.

There was nothing of the latter, but after a few minutes of flying Owen suddenly gripped his shoulder. Hard.

"Stop! There, I can see something!" he said, pointing at a few dark spots in the distance.

His worry increasing even more Obi-Wan now steered towards that place and landed a little away from it, only to have Owen rush out of the door the moment the ship had landed. He followed suit, one hand at his lightsaber just in case worse came to worst.

But he needn't have bothered. Things already _were_ at their worst, it seemed.

He could see a number of speeders standing around, surrounded by an about equal number of corpses.

He felt his blood run cold, especially once Owen cried out "That's Luke's speeder! What _happened_ here...?"

Obi-Wan swallowed hard, as he looked around, trying to identify the corpses. He did feel a little better when he didn't seek Luke with them, but only a little, really, for he soon recognized the tracks.

And he froze, once again.

"Imperials..." he whispered, causing Owen to turn to look at him.

"What did you say?"

Obi-Wan looked again, but the patterns were still clear, the desert had not yet managed to wipe them away. A group of organized people - soldiers, they had to be - had been here very recently, probably landed with some sort of transporter.

"Imperials were here," he repeated as such, slowly, wishing Luke would just jump out behind a stone now, telling them how he had hid himself and was fine or something.

But he didn't.

" _What_? But _how_?" Owen was almost shouting, his frustration evident. "Nobody knew he was here and even if they did, how could they have known it was _him_?"

"I don't know," Obi-Wan admitted. But there was something else bothering him. The wounds on the fallen... They were lightsaber wounds, unmistakeable. "I am afraid... Maybe there was a Force user with them."

"So the _one time_ you're not here an imperial Force user shows up and kidnaps Luke?! What where you _thinking_ , leaving like that!"

"I'm sorry!" Obi-Wan answered, truly regretting his actions now. He had thought it would be fine with Vader dead, he would never have thought that after all these years somebody could discover Luke... He had only been gone for a few weeks after all, maybe two standard months... It did need a while to travel from Tatooine to Alderaan, Dagobah and then back, but... He would never have imagined something like this.

"We need to find him!" Owen started again and Obi-Wan couldn't agree more.

"Yes. I'll do all I can, I will try to enlist the help of others too. We cannot leave Luke in the hands of the Empire."

"Yes, we damn well can not! And pray that once we find him he will still be alright or you wish you would never have left your hut!"

Obi-Wan winced, but nodded. He would immediately contact Bail again. He needed the help of everyone he could and the Alliance had a lot of contacts throughout the galaxy. If anyone could find Luke they would, and if he himself had to play poster boy for them to get them to do it he would, too.

He wouldn't lose another Skywalker to the Dark Side. Not this time.

xxx

 **Anakin Skywalker**

It had needed the combined efforts from Kix - the clone medic that had arrived together with Rex after his emergency signal - and Novar to keep Anakin from going completely mental over Luke's injuries.

Sure, the boy had been lucky and only gotten hit at the shoulder, but as he had worn nothing that could be called armour he still had received a severe burning.

Kix had applied first aid immediately but advised to go for Bacta just in case if this was so important to Anakin, so they had been flying back to the Vengeance at once, letting Novar take over.

Originally Anakin's intention had been to get Luke healed up and then move him back to Tatooine, no matter how much he wished it to be different. But for once the Empire did something he, in a way, benefited from: They seemed to have realised that the Star Destroyer hovering near Tatooine sent no identification signal and had decided to send two more Star Destroyers to find out what was going on - information attained by listening to the Empire's comm frequency.

So they had to leave rather quickly, unable to bring Luke back immediately, as he was still unconscious. Anakin could only hope the boy would understand, for it _did_ look suspiciously like a kidnapping.

xxx

When Luke finally opened his eyes again Anakin's nerves were raw. He had tried to keep himself distracted by thinking of his talk with Watto earlier - who he had actually managed to convince of the truth and even strike a deal with, selling a few of the brand new TIE-fighters he still had on his Star Destroyer to the junk dealer - and how he would contact him again, but it had helped only a little. The old Toydorian had, after all, provided a few innocent stories about Luke, so his thoughts returned to the boy quickly anyway, nervously awaiting his awakening.

When it happened Luke blinked a few times in confusion, before seemingly catching on what had transpired, for he shot up immediately.

"Careful there," Anakin muttered, holding out a hand to make sure he wouldn't flee the room. Though Novar was very good with healing injuries - he was keeping in shape with the clones after all - the Bacta bandage was still wrapped around Luke's shoulder, so he was supposed to stay in bed for a little longer. And Anakin certainly intended to see that the other fully recovered.

Luke took one look at him, then at his surroundings before groaning a little.

"Where am I?" he asked, obviously nervous.

Not that Anakin wasn't too, trying his best not to fidget too much as he answered.

"Well... you got shot by this Trandoshan trash, so I took you with me to my ship to make sure it would heal up again."

Luke did look a little bit relieved at that, especially once he saw the bandage around his shoulder. Anakin wondered off-handedly if being shot by a blaster hurt more or less than being stabbed by a lightsaber, but then again, _he_ was by now more than used to block off pain with the Force, so... It was probably not comparable.

"Uh... Thanks, then," Luke just replied awkwardly, but then his eyes widened in realisation. "Oh no... How long was I out? I need to go home, Uncle Owen will kill me! Where's the exit?"

Anakin blinked a few times before he realised that Luke had probably - hopefully! - never seen the insides of a Star Destroyer before, so he couldn't know that this unknown ship wasn't on the surface of the planet.

But the more disturbing thing of course was that they weren't even _close_ to Tatooine anymore, currently travelling to the Savareen sector, a neighbour to the one Tatooine was in, but still quite some distance away.

"Maybe about an hour, but... Well, maybe you should send your aunt and uncle a message..." Anakin began slowly, causing Luke to frown.

"What do you mean? Why can't I just go to them? My uncle's going to kill me already."

Anakin swallowed hard before quickly muttering the reason. "You're currently on a stolen Imperial Star Destroyer, about two parsecs away from Tatooine because after we brought you here for treatment we realised that the Empire was close to catching us so we had to vanish for the moment."

Silence reigned for a short moment, until-

" _What_?!"

"I'm sorry!" Anakin said, feeling truly apologetic. It wasn't like he had _wanted_ to basically kidnap the other! Or, well, maybe he had wanted to, but not intended to actually _do_ it! "Once we're a safe distance away we'll try to see that we return when the Empire is gone... And I'm not trying to keep you prisoner or anything, I really just wanted to help you heal! Which is why I suggested telling your relatives where you are."

"Ugh..."

Luke let himself fall back into the bed with a groan.

Anakin sighed. This was probably just too much do the other - it was already almost too much for _him_!

Both of them stayed quiet for a while after that, as Anakin didn't know what to say but also didn't want to leave. He felt horribly responsible for this whole fiasco - after all, the thugs had been after _him_ \- and besides, he was the only one on this ship Luke knew, so this way the other might not feel totally alone at least.

Though he still hadn't even given his name, afraid of the reaction he would receive...

"Say... after I got shot..." Luke suddenly muttered, sounding insecure and nervous. "Was there... someone shouting something about a son? Maybe an older Trandoshan or something?"

Anakin stiffened. He had hoped that Luke hadn't heard his little outburst and had tried his best to not think of this craziness himself. But he supposed he did owe the other the truth...

"Kind of..." he admitted, taking another deep breath to steel himself. "It was me."

Luke frowned, not yet grasping the meaning it seemed.

"You? Why?"

"I... Look, I know this sounds unbelievable, but... I'm your father."

Luke stared at him as if he was crazy. Which he was, admittedly, at least a little. But the longer Anakin was thinking about that particular thing the more he believed in it. They were already looking rather similar, their hair being the same shade of blond and both of them having similar eyes, but what did it for him was that he could feel the Force signature of Luke and it felt... _familiar_ , in a way. Not like when he had met the other person before, but... as if he ought to know it. And he was sure Luke was a Force sensitive. This all, coupled with where Luke was from and his father's name were just too many coincidences not to be true.

Of course though, Luke didn't believe him.

"Anakin Skywalker was my father," he said resolutely. "You himself told me things about him - if those even were true. And he lived over fifteen years ago, while you're definitely under thirty."

Anakin smiled bitterly. "I guess what you're saying is correct - except for the age. I'm... around forty now, I think. And my name _is_ Anakin. Anakin Skywalker."

Luke scowled.

"I do appreciate the rescue, but you don't have to start lying to me now. Did you ever look into a mirror? You could never pass as forty, Aunt Beru is forty-five and you look like you could be her son!"

"I never said I'm looking my age," Anakin protested, before sighing. "Look, I'll explain it to you if you'll let me. Do you know of the Force?"

xxx

He needed quite a while to convince Luke of the truth, but to be fair, it did sound rather ridiculous and Luke didn't know anything about the Force at all it seemed. In fact, Anakin was pretty sure that he was saved by Novar, who had wanted to check on Luke's wounds and then explained the situation once again, in clearer terms than Anakin could have ever done.

"So... You're my father and because an evil spirit took possession of your body you've not really lived those last years until you ripped out your own soul and put it into a younger clone body... Yes?" Luke repeated once more, sounding exhausted.

"Yes, that sums it up pretty nicely," Anakin agreed dryly. It did sound ridiculous if put like that, didn't it?

Luke just groaned and put his uninjured arm over his face as he was still lying down.

"If I may propose something, Anakin," Novar suddenly began, causing Anakin to turn to him in question. "I would suggest some rest. For both of you. I know from experience that this information can be quite... difficult to digest, I'm not even sure if I would have believed it had I not witnessed it myself. So how about we leave young Luke for the moment and let him work things out?"

Actually, that sounded like a fantastic idea. Fleeing the scene until things had cooled down? Anakin was definitely up for it right now, so he quickly nodded in agreement.

"Very well then." Novar nodded back at him before turning to Luke. "I'll leave you a holoprojector behind. Feel free to contact your family at any time. Once we lost the Imperial Star Destroyers we will immediately bring you back too, so they do not need to worry overly much. But I must insist that you will stay in bed for at least until I return to remove the Bacta bandage. Afterwards you are free to roam the ship I suppose. Is that acceptable?"

Luke still looked rather overwhelmed but nodded. While Anakin bit the inside of his lips to keep from commenting. He didn't actually mind those Imperials very much right now as while he still felt strange thinking about the fact that he had a _son_ , that the child, Padmé's and his _child_ , had actually been born, he really wanted to get to know the boy more now...

Still, it was clear that they couldn't just keep him imprisoned or anything, so when Novar turned to leave Anakin stood up himself, only hesitating for a moment.

"Luke... I know this stuff sounds totally incredible, but... It would be great if you gave it a chance, despite the probably more than shady first impression I made. I promise I never wished any harm to come to you and... had I known you were alive... I would have tried to fight stronger."

His last words were barely more than a whisper but he meant them as he hurried past Novar, out of the room. He really needed some time to think himself now too.

After all, what to do if one suddenly found out about being a father?! He wasn't exactly father material anyway... This was bound to get difficult.

xxx

 **Luke Skywalker**

Once the two other men had left Luke didn't wait long before sitting up again. He really needed to get this message to Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen out as fast as he could! He was sure Uncle Owen would already be beyond angry with him and he didn't want to worry either of them much more.

He took the holoprojector and hesitated only a moment before recording a message on it.

"Uh... Hi there! I'm sorry for not coming home on time today, but I really wanted to tell you that I'm fine! Well, mostly fine, I got injured by Mrink but I'm currently on a ship to get it healed as I met some people who helped me out. I'll be back really soon, so... yeah. I'm sorry for all the trouble, but you really don't have to worry. I love you."

He hesitated a moment longer as he turned the recording off, but finally he just sent it away, knowing that it wasn't exactly much but it was still better than trying to explain this whole business regarding... Vengeance.

He couldn't quite get his mind around the idea that the man was supposed to be his father.

Oh, sure, having the leader of a big anti-slavery group as his father in itself sounded awesome but if said leader was - or at least looked like he was - barely a few years older than Luke himself and seemingly was able to switch between happy and angry in a few milliseconds... It wasn't just as desirable anymore.

In a way Luke did believe the man however, he had seemed honest enough when trying to explain all this and more than once he had struggled with his words - something Luke assumed a good liar wouldn't need to do.

And as the other man, the doctor, had basically recounted the same story again, it was hard to believe this to be some sort of elaborate prank. The doctor really didn't seem the type for something like that.

At least _this_ Anakin seemed to have done better than being a spice freighter navigator. That was something, Luke supposed.

xxx

He didn't know how long he was lying around after putting the holoprojector away until he got bored. He had a lot to think about, sure, but at the same time he didn't really _want_ to think... His father had been dead to him for eighteen years now, to change this way of thinking - if he even wanted to - would take enough time as it was.

So he chose to distract himself from everything by walking around a little. He got up, carefully trying not to move his arm much as the bandage was still wrapped around it, and began to walk a bit - after noting in relief that they had only removed his shirt and shoes.

It looked like he was in some sort of medical room as besides a bed, a chair and a small shelf there were also some machines built into the wall, looking like they might be used for diagnoses or something, but at least the room was pretty big for being inside a ship.

An imperial Star Destroyer, Vengeance had said, right? That made him wonder how big the insides really were, as far as he had understood those were _huge_...

Although he got distracted as he realised that there was a window nearby, close to the door. Walking towards it he couldn't help but gape a little as he realised that he could actually see _space_ out there. Of course, there were stars visible from Tatooine at night, but Luke had never actually been anywhere close to leaving the planet with his uncle always forbidding him to go to the imperial academy.

As it was though, it was _breathtaking_. Sure, most of it was black nothingness, but the stars he could see almost everywhere in the distance as well as various other formations he could barely describe... _This_ was what he had always dreamt off when thinking of becoming a pilot. What freedom it must be to travel space with just a small starship...

xxx

He got lost in his thoughts after a while, looking out into the vastness of space, until a sudden clearing of a throat behind him made him jump a little. He turned around and noticed the doctor standing a little distance behind him, arms crossed.

"Why is it that everyone always seems to disregard my advices regarding their health?" he asked dryly, but it didn't actually sounded angry. "Anakin is just the same, 'Why should I stay in bed, I feel fine' he says and rushes headfirst into the next fight. I guess I should be glad that you just walked to the window." He sighed and Luke winced a little. He had totally forgotten about that 'Please stay in bed for a while longer' thing.

"I'm sorry."

The doctor shook his head.

"Nevermind now, it should have healed already anyway. Just come here so that I can check."

Dutifully Luke returned to the bed and sat on it, with the doctor sitting down on the chair next to it as he began to open the bandage.

"How do you feel?" the doctor asked and Luke hummed.

"Fine, I guess." At least physically, the pain he had felt before was long gone and he hadn't even felt his shoulder since waking up. He didn't know if he had gotten pain relievers though, so he had no idea if this meant he was healed already or not.

At least the doctor nodded, so it couldn't have been that bad.

"Good. I take it you contacted your relatives too?"

"Yes."

"Very well."

Luke turned his head a little to look at his shoulder too. It certainly looked fine enough... Almost as if it never had been hit by anything. Bacta really was powerful, wasn't it? Though it did make him wonder...

"How come you've got access to Bacta anyway?" he muttered after a moment, unable to reign in his curiosity as the man seemed nice enough.

"We have our sources," he answered evasively though, making Luke sigh. "Sorry, but it's not really my place to tell you these things, although I'd wager that Anakin would be more than happy to tell you whatever you want to know."

Now, with this Anakin again...

"And you really think he is my father...?" Luke muttered quietly, still not really believing this whole thing. Maybe it was easier to understand if the person in question wasn't present?

"Yes," the doctor immediately answered though. "Or, well, at least I believe he could be, age wise. I have seen him back when he was still in his old body, possessed by the spirit we told you about. Of course, I cannot possibly be sure about the origin of this spirit, for I have no way to prove anything connected to the Force, but I do know that the very obvious signs of what can also be seen as an extreme case of a split personality have vanished the moment he... changed bodies. He still isn't exactly sane I am afraid, but he is a lot better than before."

Luke sighed. This still sounded incredible. But he just couldn't outright dismiss it. He didn't know why, all this talk about this Force, it sounded so... _crazy_ , but then again, he had been living all his life on _Tatooine_ , what did he know about what else was out there in the galaxy?

"But how could he be my _father_? I mean... if that's the case, then who is my mother?"

"That I don't know," the doctor confessed with a light shrug. "I have never asked him as he always seemed reluctant to talk too much about his past. But his name really is Anakin, I am pretty sure of that. Everything else... Well, I learned to trust him with what he tells me, but I can understand if you don't. Although do keep in mind that at least some of the soldiers aboard seem to know him too so this does add some credibility to his claims."

Luke sighed. Of course, nothing could be just easy with Vengeance - or Anakin, which was obviously the name the man went by, no matter his relation to Luke.

"Alright... Thank you for your opinion."

Some more silence followed during which Luke tried to decide what to do about this whole situation, but he really had no idea except for letting it come to him. After all, it wasn't like he had to deal with all this for very long, right? So he could just ignore the weirdness for the moment, maybe he would even be able to enjoy being in _space_ for the first time!

"Looks like it has healed well," the doctor finally broke the silence after some more inspecting. "You should be free to go. I'll bring you a new shirt in a moment if you want and then you can leave the room. I would suggest getting a tour of the ship first though, it _is_ pretty big and you getting lost might drive Anakin into another frenzy. Something nobody wants to experience, trust me."

Luke just stared for a moment, before shaking his head. Yes, somehow he believed he didn't want to know.

"Alright, a shirt would be nice, thank you. I guess Ven- Anakin would be the one giving the tour, then? To ensure I'm not getting lost?"

The other man shrugged.

"I suspect so. But if you _really_ have a problem with him just say so now, we can arrange for someone else."

Luke thought about it, but finally decided against it. As weird as he thought this Anakin was, he didn't seem like a bad guy and maybe actually getting to know him would make this whole mess a bit clearer? If this was madness, some sort of elaborate trap or, in fact, the truth?

* * *

 _So, finally another chapter is done, yay! :)_  
 _Needed a bit longer to bring myself to post it since I'm not 100% happy with how it turned out, but I think it turned out the best I could do with the story flowing the way it does._  
 _At least we got some more interaction between Anakin and Luke!_

 _Next chapter should have even more of that, and sooner or later Obi-Wan will surely start to get behind this whole thing too, though I don't yet know exactly when. Should be interesting though, so stay tuned. ;)_

 _(Review answers:_

bugaboo13 _: I'm sorry that this update needed so long again, I'd like to write more but I don't have so much time anymore and there are so many things I want to do... I hope you liked it anyway, and I do have some plans for other characters to appear in the future too, so... maybe? ;)  
_ Nite Mohz _: Thanks a lot! :) Currently the idea is to go about as far as the movies did, so probably not much longer than what in canon was ~5 ABY? But let's see how things will develop... I did once toy with the idea of a sequel for the farther future, but really, these things are_ ages _away...  
_ Guest _: Thank you so much! And I'm so sorry that I needed this long for the update, I'll try to write more :x Hope you liked Obi-Wan's reaction anyway. And don't worry, I will try to get his character more diplomatic. Though I do think he did get a little weird with old age, but maybe the stress of finding Luke and dealing with a younger Anakin will make him remember his youth again, haha. :p_

 _Thank you all for your reviews, even the one liners make me very happy and I hope you will continue to like it even with updates being as slow as they currently are.)_


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